The London School of Economics and Political Science has been organising the LSE Asia Forum in different parts of Asia, with the first one held in Bangkok in March 2004, the second in Hong Kong in September 2005, and the third in New Delhi in December 2006. The LSE Asia Forum 2008 was jointly organized with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in April 2008 in Singapore, with The Politics of Knowledge as the theme of the forum.

It was decided in the early planning stage that, unlike the previous three forums, the proceedings of the 2008 Forum should be published in a book under the joint imprint of LSE and ISEAS. The actual publication would be handled by ISEAS Publishing. Except for Chapter 2 which was specifically written after the Forum for inclusion in the book, the other six chapters are the revised version of the papers presented in the Forum. The book serves as a permanent record of the important event held in Singapore as well as a valuable contribution to the discourse on the politics of knowledge that is playing a pivotal role in shaping the economic and social advancement of many regions in our globalising world.

We would like to put on record our grateful thanks to the distinguished speakers who have taken their valuable time to speak at the Forum as well as revising their papers for publication. Our thanks go to Howard Davies, Director of LSE, and Ambassador K. Kesavapany, Director of ISEAS, for their encouragement and support in the organisation of the Forum and the publication of this book, and Mrs Triena Ong, Managing Editor, for overseeing the publication aspects. We must of course thank the many sponsors whose generous donations have contributed to the immediate success of the Forum and to the happy outcome as represented by this book. Finally, the views expressed in the book are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent those of the institutions they represent.