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The “ASEAN Way” is based on the principle of consensus; any individual member state effectively has a veto over any proposal it does not support. This book analyzes how China uses its financial power and influence to divide the member countries of ASEAN in order to prevent them from acting collectively to resolve their territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. Comparative case studies of China’s relations with Cambodia, the Philippines, and Myanmar illustrate that the regime type in the country with which China is interacting plays an important role in enhancing or constraining China’s ability to influence the governments of developing states within ASEAN and globally. Authoritarian institutions facilitate Chinese influence while democratic institutions inhibit that influence. The book argues that as long as ASEAN includes developing, authoritarian regimes, and given that the United States and other global powers are unlikely to risk any serious conflict over each push of China’s maritime boundaries, little by little, China will assert its sovereignty over the South China Sea. Nevertheless, the book contends that if China chooses to engage in more sophisticated bilateral politics with democratic states, such as providing incentives to a broader range of interest groups, then China will have more success in projecting its power globally.

Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, the literal truth of the Bible, apocalyptical prophecies, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sexual education, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war. The intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism—an idea widely misunderstood as American superiority. It is rather what makes America an exception, for better or worse. While exceptionalism once was largely a source of strength, it may now spell decline, as unique features of U.S. history, politics, law, culture, religion, and race relations foster grave conflicts and injustices. They also shed light on the peculiar ideological evolution of American conservatism, which long predated Trumpism. Anti-intellectualism, conspiracy-mongering, radical anti-governmentalism, and Christian fundamentalism are far more common in America than Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, Mugambi Jouet explores American exceptionalism’s intriguing roots as a multicultural outsider-insider. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, he then lived throughout America, from the Bible Belt to New York, California, and beyond. His articles have notably been featured in The New Republic, Slate, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, and Le Monde. He teaches at Stanford Law School.

Although regarded as a single community of Islamists, Islamic political movements utilise vastly different means to pursue their goals. This book examines why some Islamic movements facing the same socio-political structures pursue different political paths, while their counterparts in diverse contexts make similar political choices. Based on qualitative fieldwork involving personal interviews with Islamic politicians, journalists, and ideologues – conducted both before and after the Arab Spring – this study draws close comparisons between six Islamic movements in Jordan, Morocco and Turkey. It analyses how some Islamic movements decide to form a political party to run in elections, while their counterparts in the same country reject doing so and instead engage in political activism as a social movement through informal channels. More broadly, this study demonstrates the role of internal factors, ideological priorities and organisational needs in explaining differentiation within Islamic political movements, and discusses its effects on democratisation. In Morocco, this book examines the Movement for Unity and Reform that formed the Party for Justice and Development, and the Justice and Spirituality Movement that eschewed party politics. In Turkey, it examines the National Outlook Movement that is the mother-movement to various Islamic political parties, and the Gülen Movement that has a complicated relationship with incumbent parties. In Jordan, this book examines the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing the Islamic Action Front Party, and the Quietist Salafis rejecting institutional politics.