Research Guides: PLSC 4340: Southeast Asia Politics & Diaspora: Overview

Background Information

Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia by Joseph Chinyong Liow
Publication Date: 2022
Political history by country and entries on many concepts, events, and people related to Southeast politics.
Political Handbook of the World
Publication Date: Published annually
Facts and analysis on each country's government, political and economic history, foreign relations, political parties, and current issues. This is a must-use resource when studying a country's politics, and is particularly strong for understanding political parties.

Newspapers

New York Times This link opens in a new window
Excellent new reporting and opinion with a moderate left lean. Look for the filter by section to limit results to opinion pieces.

The Economist (1986 - present)
Balanced news reporting from the UK. Editorial stance supports free trade, globalization, open immigration, environmental protection, and social liberalism.
Foreign Policy (1990-present)
American news publication focused on global affairs, current events, and domestic and international policy
Political News & Opinion
Recommended news publications

Books

Books can offer a broader scope and context, and a lot of scholarly country studies are published as books.

Library Search - Advanced This link opens in a new window
Use the country name or "Southeast Asia" as a subject. Limit the results to books. Other useful terms are politics, democracy, government, economic conditions, economic development, religion, diaspora, and ethnicity

Articles

Political Science Complete This link opens in a new window
Use the country's name as a subject.
PAIS This link opens in a new window
Useful for topics related to policy

ISEAS
Research institute focusing on Southeast Asian regional political, economic, cultural dynamics

Policy Papers

Written by organizations like think tanks, NGOs, and government agencies, policy papers are reports on a policy topic that seeks to argue for a specific policy position with supporting research. Be sure to evaluate the organization that produces the policy paper to know if its authoritative.

If searching within a specific organization's website, a Google site search (see below) makes research much faster.

Policy Commons: Global Think Tanks This link opens in a new window
Objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, think tanks, IGOs and NGOs

Think Tank Search Engine
Custom think tank Google search that limits results to think tanks listed in the Global Go To Think Tank Index
Foreign Affairs (1922-present)
News and analysis on global issues and policy, from the Council on Foreign Relations.
Brookings Institution: Center for Asia Policy Studies
U.S. think tank, Asia division
National Bureau of Asian Research
U.S. think tank
Lowy Institute
An independent, nonpartisan international policy think tank located in Australia
Asia Society Policy Institute
Think tank on major policy challenges confronting the Asia-Pacific in security, prosperity, and sustainability
East-west Center: Southeast Asia
U.S. based institution to support relationships and understanding
Think Asia
Open source platform for sharing research, policy papers

Economic Surveys

Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Good for research and profiles related to the country's economy.
View the Company Research and Industry Research tutorials for more insights.
OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development publications

World Bank: Open Knowledge Repository
A collection of studies and documents from the World Bank. Click Collections to browse by resource type. Look for Country Strategy Documents and Economic and Sector Work Studies. Click Topics to browse or search for your topic.
Asian Development Bank

Research Librarian

Megan Heuer

Contact:

mheuer@smu.edu
(214) 768-1856

Subjects: Economics, Government, International & Area Studies, Journalism, Political Science, Public Policy & International Affairs, Writing & Reasoning

AI Search Tools

Elicit
Searches Semantic Scholar, produces results in a spreadsheet format with summaries and additional information of your choice (methodology, results, etc.)
Consensus
Academic search engine that synthesizes results from research papers and provides real citations. Users do not need to create an account.
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Academic search engine that asks structured questions to pull citations to research papers. Most useful for researchers knowledgeable on the topic. Create a free account for 10 searches a month.