This collection of Asia Pacific Security Outlook from 1997 to 2001 offers readers a new format for reviewing and researching the salient security issues in the region at the closing of the century’s last decade. The five original print editions of the Outlook are reproduced in toto, and each of the twenty countries surveyed is newly grouped in five-, three-, two-, or one-year collections (depending on the timing of their inclusion in the series)—for twenty-five books in all. The five-year collection for Malaysia includes the 1999 report on that country, which is not contained in Asia Pacific Security Outlook 2000.

“Live” indexes for the 1999, 2000, and 2001 editions permit instant access to pages cited in index entries in the printed books. A “mega-index” database allows readers to search the complete text of all twenty-five books quickly and easily. This Windows/Macintosh hybrid CD-ROM includes Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™ software for both platforms.

The Outlook series monitors changing perceptions of national security environments, key defense issues, and national contributions to regional and global security. A multinational team of security experts writes country chapters on member countries of the ASEAN Regional Forum (twenty of the twenty-three members are covered): Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam. The ASEAN Regional Forum is an intergovernmental collaboration promoting practical dialogue among Asia Pacific countries on key security issues.

The annual Asia Pacific Security Outlook is part of the Asia Pacific Agenda Project and is prepared through collaboration between the ASEAN Institutes for Strategic and International Studies, the East-West Center, and the Japan Center for International Exchange.