Editor's Note

In 2018, the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute celebrates its 50th anniversary. As part of a series of events and publications to mark this occasion, in December 2017 Contemporary Southeast Asia issued a call for papers to be published in a special issue of the journal in August 2018 that would showcase original research undertaken by young scholars working on Southeast Asia. Authors had to be enrolled in a doctoral programme at a university or to have obtained their PhD degree within 12 months before 1 April 2018.

Submissions had to include a strong central argument, a compelling narrative, a rigorous analytical framework and make an original contribution to the literature. Those articles which met this criteria were then subjected to a rigorous double-blind peer review process.

The editors of Contemporary Southeast Asia are pleased to publish the six best entries in this issue of the journal. Two of the articles examine the contemporary politics of Cambodia. Jonathan Sutton looks at how Prime Minister Hun Sen has consolidated political power, while Rebecca Gidley examines why the Khmer Rouge Tribunal is being held in the headquarters of the Cambodian armed forces and not, as initially conceived, in an historic theatre in the centre of Phnom Penh. Aulia Nastiti and Sari Ratri address the issue of "emotive politics" in Indonesia and the role of Islamic organizations in mobilizing Islamic agendas in the political arena. Iris Chen Xuechen looks at how the European Union's evolving perception of ASEAN's identities have contributed to reshaping ASEAN–EU interactions. In his article, Dominic Nardi examines the impact of NGOs on decisions made by Indonesia's Constitutional Court. Finally, in the sixth article, Xue Gong explores the role of Chinese state-owned corporations in Beijing's policy in the South China Sea.

As an established and world-leading research institute of Southeast Asian studies, the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute has a long-term interest in nurturing the next generations of researchers working on regional issues. This special issue of Contemporary Southeast Asia is therefore part of ISEAS's commitment to promoting the understanding of Southeast Asia, a mission that the Institute will continue to pursue in its next 50 years and beyond.