"A superb book, providing a richly documented, carefully reasoned, and innovative analysis of the economic imperative in the choice of language regimes. Addressing criteria of stability, efficiency, and inclusivity, and focusing especially on Asia, Amy Liu makes a convincing case for the role of lingua francas in power sharing and power neutralizing in multiethnic societies. It is a major contribution to the comparative study of the politics of language."--William Safran, University of Colorado at Boulder.