This chapter explores the challenges and opportunities in Brunei and the wider region. There has been a growing body of work on HRM in a wide cross section of emerging markets. There was initially a strong focus on cross-cultural approaches that sought to explain both the dominance of specific types of practice in emerging markets and how local cultures conferred both challenges and opportunities. More recently, the focus has shifted to comparative institutional approaches, in both helping to explain the process of systemic development and change and enabling closer links to be drawn between HR practice and the wider political economy. This chapter locates the practice of HRM in Brunei within the wider political context, and draws out the implications for understanding continuity in change in HR practice, and similarities with and differences from other emerging markets.