Outrage: Burma's Struggle for Democracy, Review Publishing, Hong Kong, 1989, and White Lotus, Bangkok, 1990.
Land of Jade: A Journey from India through Northern Burma to China, First published in Kiscadale Publications in 1989, most recent edition by Orchid Press, Bangkok, 2011.
The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma, Cornell University Southeast Asia Program Publications, Ithaca, 1990.
The Kachin: Lords of Burma's Northern Frontier, Teak House Books, Chiang Mai, 1997.
Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948, Westview Press, Boulder, 1994, and Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, 1999, 2003 and 2011.
Blood Brothers: Crime, Business and Politics in Asia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2002.
Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld in Asia, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2003.
Great Leader, Dear Leader : Demystifying North Korea Under the Kim Clan, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, 2005
Merchants of Madness: The Methamphetamine Explosion in the Golden Triangle (coauthored with Michael Black), Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, 2009.
Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s Struggle for Democracy, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, 2011.
World.Wide.Web: Chinese Migration in the 21st Century — and How It will Change the World, Orchid Press, Bangkok, 2011.
Great Game East: India, China and the Struggle for Asia’s Most Volatile Frontier, Harper Collins, New Delhi, 2012, and Yale University Press, New Haven, 2015.
China's India War: Collision Course on the Roof of the World, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2018.
The Costliest Pearl: China’s Struggle for India’s Ocean, Hurst & Company, London, 2019, and Westland Publications, India, 2019.
