The creation of unified polities in Asia remains a daunting challenge because of the numerous claims made by nations within state boundaries. None of the states in the case studies included in this book can claim unmitigated success in achieving harmonious reconciliation between the demands of sub-state nations seeking recognition and the goal of the central government to forge polities that transcend differences between these groups. In fact, there is much variance among states in Asia with respect to the willingness to recognize or accommodate sub-state nationalities. Contributors to this book have traced the roots of this variance, as well as the common traits that characterize many Asian states. Together, they suggest broad patterns and explanatory factors that are rooted in the domestic arena, based on which we suggest tentative generalizations based on the Asian experience.

Although we have found that historical trajectories and domestic political factors provide the strongest explanation of similarities and differences among Asian cases, the international environment has also to some extent conditioned the willingness and ability of Asian states to recognize their multinational status. As many of the contributors have shown, colonialism had a determining influence on the institutional choices made by post-colonial states. The Cold War in Asia, which quickly came to the fore with events such as the Korean War (1950–1953) and the Taiwan Strait Crises (1954–1955, 1958), exacerbated or dampened conflicts within multinational states, as the Bangladesh crisis of 1971 has demonstrated.