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Literature shows that environmental change would profoundly influence residents' emotional ties with their community. This study attempts to further the examination by probing into the relationship between perceived ecological change and place attachment at a small-island destination where tourism has become a heavyweight business and transformed the living quality of locals. The survey questionnaires are distributed to the residents of the study site Kinmen archipelago in Taiwan. The resultant data illustrate that age, occupation, the town of residence, house ownership, and the length of residence moderate the resident's place attachment. Besides, from a result of regression analysis, the perception of rapid community development reveals a positive relationship with the level of place attachment. This study suggests timely strategies enticing younger residents' place attachment along with other managerial actions, helping invigorate the community living.

Using the modified theory of planned behavior, this study aims to understand residents’ supporting or rejecting mindsets toward legalizing gambling in Kinmen, Taiwan, where exists a complex and somewhat contradictory relationships between economic growth and the preservation of the natural environment in the context of tourism specifically to small island destinations. This study develops a convenience sampling procedure in which 365 questionnaires are collected. A series of hypotheses tests are conducted via structural equation modeling. This study notices that perceived behavioral control is the most important attribute affecting behavioral intention. However, behavioral intention does not necessarily lead to actual behavior. Attitude is considered as a more reliable predictor of actual action. Attitude relied heavily on positive perceived behavioral control. Further, the respondents are concerned more about how legalizing gambling affects their current lifestyle.

Perhaps the most important aspect of civil–military relations, with implication for all other dimensions of this relationship, is how the public perceives the military and its role. This research uncovered some interesting patterns in this relationship, an understanding of which is crucial to solving the problems faced by the ROC military today. Results of this research illuminate an ambivalence in attitudes toward the military. As Moskos has amply demonstrated, militaries can be a part of society, or separate from the society they serve. During the 38 years of martial law, the military essentially controlled public perception through outright control of the island’s media. Today, with the post-democratization emergence of a free press, the military is constantly being excoriated by the media. It is important to determine the degree to which the general population believes this harsh coverage is justified, or do people think that the military does not deserve to be treated so shabbily by the media. Results of this research indicate that the more strongly one identifies as Taiwanese, the less likely he is to view the media as being unfair to the military in its coverage. Perception of the media’s coverage of the military is therefore impacted significantly by self-identification, as confirmed by these results: with those self-identifying as Taiwanese believing that the media harshness is warranted in covering the military. This is not an unexpected result, given that, as mentioned above, the military is widely seen as having been the KMT army, and antithetical to the push for independence, or at least localization.

Force Structure is an important aspect of the PMMM and helps define the nature of civil–military relations. It is in the realm of conscription that the dimension of force structure finds particular relevance in the Taiwan context. Moreover, while there have been military restructuring projects and programs that have made detailed changes one way or the other, the big picture remains: Taiwan’s is a conscript-based military. Therefore, it is this aspect of force structure wherein the importance of public perception lies, and the results of this research show that attitudes toward military conscription are impacted significantly by self-identification, with the vast majority wanting the ROC government to keep conscription, rather than moving forward with the All-Volunteer Force transformation. In terms of the attitudes toward conscientious objection, results show that the younger a respondent is, the more they support conscientious objection. Moreover, the more supportive a respondent is to women serving in the military, the more they support conscientious objection. Taken together, this would seem to indicate that citizens, especially young people, regard the matter of military service as a choice that should be made by the individual in question – either male or female. Given the fact of conscription, persons with a valid reason for conscientiously objecting should not be forced to serve, or punished if they refuse to do so. Thus it seems that people recognize a need for conscription, whether as a means to promote good citizenship habits among young men, or because of the China threat, but that opting out of such a system should be accommodated.

The leaders of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) announced to negotiate a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECP) in November 2012, which is comprised of 10 ASEAN Member States (Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar) and its six FTA partner countries (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and India). Embedded in the ASEAN Charter and implemented in all existing ASEAN + 1 FTAs, the ASEAN Centrality has been a corner stone principle in ASEAN-centric economic initiatives. Emerging discord in the region, complicated security climate and the rise of China, among others, have put the ASEAN Centrality under challenge. The development of the RCEP provides a timely case to assess ASEAN’s leadership role in creating the world’s most populous Free Trade Area. The RCEP may enhance ASEAN’s central role, but ASEAN needs to address challenges facing the regional integration now and beyond 2015. On the country/economy level, the chapter reviews some ASEAN Member States and their FTA Partners how they practice their ASEAN policy and seek leadership role in ASEAN. The three major players in ASEAN-Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia have reiterated the importance of the ASEAN Centrality in their foreign policy in the past, but debates emerge whether, such as in Indonesia, ASEAN Centrality best suits the national interests. The chapter also explores how the major powers, including China and the United States, respond to and collaborate with the group of smaller developing country players.

This research probes the nostalgic influence of place attachment and the associated sociodemographic traits which modify environmental attitudes. The study site is a nostalgic campus from one of the most established universities in Taiwan, which has over a 100-year-long history. According to the 382 questionnaires collected, the study observes that several sociodemographic traits could affect environmental attitudes. Further, the perceived place attachment toward a historical campus under investigation positively impacts the respondent's environmental attitudes. In particular, the two subdimensions of cognition and the perceived importance of the place significantly affect the environmental attitude. This study renders valuable insights on what attributes are able to alter the environmental attitude of nostalgic seekers. Consequently, partitioners can efficiently redesign/reshape a historical place for passive leisure pursuits promoting environmental consciousness using the resultant data.