Synopsis This book is a result of wide ranging academic collaboration between two scholars of two neighbouring countries -Bangladesh and India. Significantly, their ideas and interests have covered on important topics such as nationalism, colonialism, civil-military relations and challenges of good governance. The authors have largely dealt with four countries -Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Thailand. Various issues like relations between the people, politicians and administrators have occupied a predominant place in this book. Dysfunctionalities of public administration have repeatedly come to the forefront. In this perspective, the solitary essay on Thailand gains great importance because it reveals similarities not only between south and south-east Asian countries and the United States. It is to the credit of these two authors that, unlike most academics, they have not merely underlined the deficiencies in public administration, but also have been bold enough to suggest possible solutions. It is further to their credit that the papers -published elsewhere from 1973 to 2003 -have stood the test of time, simultaneously preserving the flavour of bygone decades.