This article explores how the political connections cultivated by Pakistan’s business groups contributed to their rise as key actors in the corporate sector. Such connections have long been used by business groups in developing countries to secure access to economic rents from politicians in power. We examine the basis of selection of business groups for state patronage under military and civilian-led regimes, as well as the extent to which such ties have contributed to their rise as Pakistan’s leading enterprises. A historical analysis is provided of these groups, with a focus on a financial review of their publicly listed companies. We find that emerging business groups actively resort to rent-seeking activities by colluding with ruling elites, while also using multifaceted networking to protect and enhance their presence in the corporate sector.

This paper asserts that ethnically dominated political citizenship defines the deep structure of the Malaysian regime, in congruence with ethnic Malay social demand. This, rather than the commonly suggested electoral gerrymander, prevents partisan turnovers because opposition parties, tied to the same congruence, offer no strategic gains to alter the status quo.

Distinguishing between power as resources and influence as converting those resources into outcomes, I propose a new framework for analyzing China’s influence, using examples from Southeast Asia. Because China exercises influence predominantly in contexts of convergent, not divergent, preferences, three key modes of influence are “preference multiplying,” “persuasion,” and “ability to prevail.”

As China rises, its influence on other states’ policy choices will depend partly on the extent of its “structural power.” This article examines China’s role in Asian monetary affairs and argues that deficient structural power has contributed to a significant gap between China’s waxing economic resources and its policy influence.

This article examines Bangladeshi women’s experiences of their men’s migration. It focuses on the lifestyles, household responsibilities, and levels of compliance with or defiance against dominant gender ideologies concerning the everyday lives of left-behind women in two migration-intensive villages in Bangladesh. By locating the meanings and substance of women’s power and agency in the context of their living arrangement in nuclear, joint, and natal families, I argue that the choices and priorities of these women be interpreted beyond liberal feminist models of “empowerment” and “emancipation.”

This article demonstrates how Tokyo has been exercising economic power in the multilateral talks on North Korea, including over the U.S. The implication is that Japanese foreign and security policy can be regarded as "normal" already ---hence forming a critique of ideas of "normalization" that are preconditioned on remilitarization.

The prospects for improving justice and stability in Burma remain bleak. Conventions and talks have proven to be neither fully representative nor substantive while economic prospects remain woeful, consolidating purges continue, and institutional reforms are being undermined by mistrust and the ruling generals' unwillingness to relinquish power.