Since time immemorial China regarded its culture and statecraft superior to other nations, but in the ‘Age of Humiliation’ (1839-1949), it was reduced to a semi-colony. The old empire has now regained its strength, but what drives its domestic and foreign policy?

China calls itself a ‘Socialist’ country, but the appellation of philosopher Tu Weiming is more adequate: A battlefield of Socialism, Liberalism and Confucianism.

The outcome of this struggle will have profound repercussion...

Under the slogan ‘Merdeka!’, the Republic of Indonesia rushed into a battle for independence – a struggle whose outcome no one could predict. Harry Poeze and Henk Schulte Nordholt provide a new narrative about the revolution, focusing not only on the fight against the Dutch but also on the precarious rise of the Republic."

After the horrors of the Japanese occupation, the Republican leaders needed to somehow build a new state. From the Dutch side, they had to deal with short-sighted pol...