Beyond Indochina: Indochina's Transition from Socialist Central Planning to Market-oriented Economics and Its Integration Into South-east Asia

For more than two decades Indochina has been a zone of contention among external powers and regional states. Beyond Indochina is a study of the disintegration of Indochina as a bloc and the domestic processes of transition which have been set in motion by the failure of socialist economics,the collapse of communism and the ending of the Cold War.Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have re-emerged as independent actors in regional affairs. Each is moving to re-integrate with the region. Expanded regionalism, in the form of enlarged ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations), will result if the processes of transition and re-integration takeplace smoothly. ASEAN stands to emerge as an even more important actor globally. The region's future, howver, will depend on the resolution of existing security issues, such as conflicting territorial claims to the South China Sea.