Laura Southgate – författare

Winner of the Adam Foundation PrizeErica is 17 and in her last year of high school. Donny is 42 and everywhere - in her yoga class, at German Club, in her parents' spare room . . .The story of a young woman who finds herself subject to the gravitational field of a charismatic man, The Boyfriend is a cautionary tale about blindly accepting traditional 'love' narratives. This clear-eyed, dismaying and often hilarious examination of sexual desire, trauma and growth is a remarkable debut and a perfect novel for our time.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Examining how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) has responded to external threats over the past 50 years, this book provides a compelling account of regional state actions and foreign policy in the face of potential sovereignty violation. The author draws on a large amount of previously unanalysed material, including declassified government documents and WikiLeaks cables, to examine four key cases since 1975. Taking into account state interests and the role of external powers, the author develops the ‘vanguard state theory’ to explain ASEAN state responses to sovereignty violation, which, it is argued, has universal applicability and explanatory power.

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of Beijing and Washington’s Southeast Asia policy, and moves beyond the superpower dyad to examine how multiple external actors — including the EU, UK, Japan, India, and Australia — are seeking to project power into the region.Vital for scholars and students of international relations, security studies, and Asian politics, it offers a path to understanding one of the world's most strategically important regions in an era of great power and strategic competition.