• List of maps; Preface and acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction: Britain, the United States and the South East Asia setting; Part I. Build-up: 1. The Kennedy Administration, Indonesia and the resolution of the West Irian crisis, 1961–2; 2. The Greater Malaysia scheme I: the move toward merger; 3. The Greater Malaysia scheme II: the Cobbold Commission and the Borneo territories; 4. Britain, Indonesia and Malaya: from West Irian to the Brunei revolt; Part II. Outbreak: 5. The emergence of confrontation, January–May 1963; 6. The path to the Manila Summit, May–July 1963; 7. From the Manila Summit to the creation of Malaysia, August–September 1963; 8. Avoiding escalation, September–December 1963; Part III. Denouement: 9. The diplomacy of confrontation, Anglo-American relations and the Vietnam War, January–June 1964; 10. Escalation, upheaval and reappraisal, July 1964–October 1965; Conclusion: the Western presence in South East Asia by the 1960s; Bibliography; Index.

Review of the hardback: '… this book is a highly commendable and competent piece of original research. It is an important record of the contemporary events which have shaped modern Southeast Asia, throwing light on a period of flux and conflict that the present can relate to given recent events in Indonesia.' International Affairs