A cursory survey of the literature available suggests that the globalization theme had not yet become the focus of attention among most researchers of Southeast Asia until very recently. However, this does not mean that Southeast Asianists had not been researching and writing about particular aspects of globalization, as outlined by Loh and Öjendal in the Introduction.

For instance, in the 1980s, especially after the Plaza Accords of 1985 and the realignment of currencies, economists had already noted the unprecedented inflow of FDIs and subsequently portfolio capital into certain Southeast Asian countries (see articles in Soon 1990). Other economists like Yoshihara (1988), even earlier, had traced the role of foreign capital in the rise of what he termed ‘ersatz capitalism’ in Southeast Asia. The collection of essays in Robison, Hewison and Higgott (1987), on the other hand, discussed the fiscal crisis and foreign debt problems in Southeast Asia in the early 1980s, which resulted in a swing in the balance of power away from the domestic states and capital to international financial institutions, and a similar change in the balance of influence over policy from protectionists to proponents of neoliberalism. Related studies traced how economic liberalization policies often enhanced cronyism (Gomez and Jomo 1997). There have also been studies of cultural developments in the Southeast Asian countries, highlighting how the new information and communication technology had contributed towards cultural homogenization and hybridity, as well as local responses to these cultural developments. Studies of Southeast Asia's ‘new politics’ – the human rights and feminist movement, the consumer and environmental movements, religious revivalism, ethnoregional movements, NGOs and their cultural politics – and democratization more generally had also been conducted (ICJ and CAP 1982; ACHRO 1984; Kahn and Loh 1992; Saravanamuttu 1992; Maznah and Wong 1994; Loh 1996; Robinson 1996; Jaturong and Gawin 1995; Eldridge 1995; Rodan 1993 and 1996; Uhlin 1996; and Heryanto 1997).