This book offers fresh insights into ethnic conflict and democracy with reference to Northeast India, where insurgency and counter-insurgency operations have caused human and material losses, eroded the region’s democratic fabric, and institutionalised authoritarianism. The result is a growing dissonance between the concept of ethnic homelands and the political economy that actually exists in the region. The book also traces the origins of the Naga insurgency—Northeast India’s oldest armed conflict—and looks at the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) during different phases of its power and influence. The author argues that if peace and development are to be brought to the region, India’s policy would have to be reoriented and linked to a new foreign policy towards Southeast Asia through the pursuit of a dynamic ‘Look East’ policy. In the Preface, the author discusses the issues of insider/outsider and the politics of location which have been interpreted by reviewers and critics as the main themes of the book.