Monash Asia Institute Press
(an imprint of Monash University Press)
New Titles
The iconic female: goddesses of India, Nepal and Tibet
edited by Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat and Ian Mabbett, 2008, $44.95, ISBN 978 1 876924 66 9, 244pp, page size A5 210 x 148mm
The energy of the goddess fills every facet of Indian life. To her devotees, the goddess appears in myriad forms: a mother, boon-giver, destroyer of evil, a divine lover, a protector and/or a bloodthirsty ogress. The more we discover about her, the more teasingly complex and multivalent the Devi appears. She is both constant and changing, loved and feared, worshipped and forgotten only to be re-discovered and worshipped again. In this book, for the first time, ten Australian researchers working on many aspects of the Devi have come together and offered, in a single collection, new research on the divine female. This book is the beginning of a renewed quest for the iconic Devi who continues to emerge in her many, unpredictably powerful forms.
Information
Is Japan really remilitarising? The politics of norm formation and change
Yasuo Takao, 2008, $36.95. ISBN 978 1 876924 60 7, 220pp, page size A5 210 x 148mm
Is Japan really remilitarising? According to the mass media, Japanese nationalism is on the rise. Tokyo’s stance on national security is becoming uncharacteristically assertive. This book explores the prospect of Japan’s remilitarisation and challenges the preconceived approaches taken by existing theories to Japan’s national security. The book examines Japan’s pacifism since the Second World War, developments in Japanese military build-up since the late 1960s, and Japan’s responses to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Controversies between realism and social constructivism continue to dominate Japan’s national security debates but neither is fully able to make point predictions. This study, an attempt to bridge the gap between these two rigid approaches, helps us understand this vital aspect of Japan’s national security.
Orders
