In this volume dedicated to John “Jack” Bresnan, some of his former colleagues, friends, and students continue his legacy of engagement with Southeast Asia. In a career that spanned over half a century, Jack engaged the region in a number of capacities: as an executive with the Ford Foundation, including two tours in Indonesia, the last as Representative; as a consultant to the Asia Society; and as Director of the Pacific Basin Programme at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University.

Throughout his career, Jack promoted the economic, social, and political development of the region as well as mutual understanding between Southeast Asian countries and the United States. The authors of this volume chronicle the transformations that have occurred both within Southeast Asia as well as between the region and the rest of the world over the last six decades. As with Jack, all of the contributors to this volume strived to balance “rational” analysis of each of the Southeast Asian country concerned with the more “emotive” understanding of the cultural context, thus meshing the “outsider's” view with the “insider's” innate impulses of meaning.

Jack believed in the power of ideas, and the power of people to bring about positive changes in the world around them. He spent much of his life bringing people and ideas together. At Ford, Jack worked to empower people by promoting new scientific discoveries, managerial techniques, and academic training in Southeast Asia. Later in his career, he facilitated dialogues and exchanges between the U.S. and Southeast Asia in order to promote understanding and reduce misperceptions. At Columbia, he introduced a new generation of American graduate students to Southeast Asia.