This book introduces readers to the deep political tensions in the Asia-Pacific and offers classroom simulations designed to encourage students to delve deeper into the issues and dynamics of the region.

This second edition of Michael Yahuda's extremely successful textbook introduces students to the international politics of the Asia Pacific region since 1945. The new edition is completely updated with contemporary coverage of the economic crises and includes new chapters on: the current role of East Asia in world affairs prospects post-2000 the strengths and weaknesses of US dominance and the challenge of other powers prospects for and implications of an East Asian economic recovery.

The new, fully updated second edition of The New Global Politics of the Asia Pacific builds on its coherent framework for understanding the complex international and global politics of the Asia Pacific. The textbook provides an introductory guide for the main frameworks needed to understand the region (realism, liberalism, critical theory), which is reader-friendly while still offering sophisticated competing interpretations. Key content includes: the US in the Asia Pacific; China and Japan in the Asia Pacific; Southeast Asia in the Asia Pacific; India in the Asia Pacific; Russia in the Asia Pacific; Australia in the Asia Pacific; Europe in the Asia Pacific; globalization, regionalism and political economy; Asian values, democracy and human rights; transnational actors; region security order and the impact of terrorism on the region. A highly topical account, which provides an overview of the main actors, institutions and contemporary issues such as security, terrorism and transnational actors, the book is required reading for undergraduate students of Asian studies, international politics, and anyone interested in the region.

East Asian countries are now pursuing greater formal economic institutionalization, weaving a web of bilateral and minilateral preferential trade agreements. Scholarly analysis of “formal” East Asian regionalism focuses on international political and economic factors such as the end of the Cold War, the Asian financial crisis, or the rising Sino-Japanese rivalry. Yet this work pays inadequate attention to the strategies of individual government agencies, business groups, labor unions, and NGOs across the region. Moreover, most studies also fail to adequately characterize different types of trade arrangements, often lumping together bilateral accords with minilateral ones, and transregional agreements with those within the region. To fully understand this cross-national variance, this book argues that researchers must give greater attention to the domestic politics within East Asian countries and the U.S., involving the interplay of these subnational players. With contributions from leading country and regional trade specialists, this book examines East Asian and American trade strategies through the lens of a domestic bargaining game approach with a focus on the interplay of interests, ideas, and domestic institutions within the context of broader international shifts. With respect to domestic politics, the chapters show how subnational actors engage in lobbying, both of their own governments and through their links to others in the region. They also trace the evolution of interests and ideas over time, helping us to generate a better understanding of historical trends in the region. In addition to scholars of East Asian and comparative regionalism, this book will be of interest to policy-makers concerned with international trade and U.S.-Asia relations, and those interested in understanding the rich trade institutional landscape that we see emerging in the Asia-Pacific.

Drawing on first hand research and written in a clear and accessible manner this is a highly original book providing a detailed account of the political influence exerted by both domestic and international media in the Asia Pacific region.

Capturing the most recent currents in world affairs¿without sacrificing historical context¿the second edition of Asia Pacific in World Politics reflects more than a decade of new developments. The focus on the region¿s major state actors has now been broadened to include an entirely new chapter on India and greatly expanded treatment of both Russia and Australia. The role of international organizations is also thoroughly covered, as are the conflicts involving Taiwan and Korea and the complexities of international politics in Southeast Asia.Incorporating discussions of security broadly defined, political economy, development, human rights, refugees, and much more, this up-to-date text offers an introduction to Asia Pacific¿s dynamic role in world politics that will encourage students to engage with contemporary issues and debates.Derek McDougall is professor of political Science at the University of Melbourne.

Asia is experiencing major changes in its security relations. This book brings together respected experts to assess both the theoretical and empirical dimensions of the Asian security debate. Building on the latest research on Asia's regional security politics, it focuses on the 'regional-global nexus' as a way to understand the dynamics of Asian security politics and its intersection with global security. Contributors to the volume offer diverse but complementary perspectives on which issues and factors are most important in explaining how security politics in Asia can be interpreted at both the regional and global levels of analysis. Issues addressed include power balancing and alliances, governance and democracy, maritime and energy security, the relationship between economics and security, 'human security', terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation, climate change and pandemics. This work will serve as a standard reference on the evolution of key issues in Asian security.

Soon after the American Revolution, ?certain of the founders began to recognize the strategic significance of Asia and the Pacific and the vast material and cultural resources at stake there. Over the coming generations, the United States continued to ask how best to expand trade with the region and whether to partner with China, at the center of the continent, or Japan, looking toward the Pacific. Where should the United States draw its defensive line, and how should it export democratic principles? In a history that spans the eighteenth century to the present, Michael J. Green follows the development of U.S. strategic thinking toward East Asia, identifying recurring themes in American statecraft that reflect the nation's political philosophy and material realities. Drawing on archives, interviews, and his own experience in the Pentagon and White House, Green finds one overarching concern driving U.S. policy toward East Asia: a fear that a rival power might use the Pacific to isolate and threaten the United States and prevent the ocean from becoming a conduit for the westward free flow of trade, values, and forward defense. By More Than Providence works through these problems from the perspective of history's major strategists and statesmen, from Thomas Jefferson to Alfred Thayer Mahan and Henry Kissinger. It records the fate of their ideas as they collided with the realities of the Far East and adds clarity to America's stakes in the region, especially when compared with those of Europe and the Middle East.

This book explores the theoretical and empirical relationship between democracy and governance in the Asia-Pacific region. Examining a variety of country cases and themes addressing the theoretical tension between governance and democracy, it illuminates how this impacts political and civil societies across the region. Analysing the character, structure and current trajectories of polities in the Asia-Pacific, democratic or otherwise, this book demonstrates that the role of civil society, political society and governance has significantly differed in practice from what has been commonly assumed within the international community. The book includes both theoretical investigations tracing the modern development of the concepts of governance, development and democratization as well as regional and country-specific observations of major issues, presenting comprehensive country-level studies of China, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. Presenting fascinating insight into non-democratic governance, civil society and the rule of law in illiberal contexts, Governance and Democracy in the Asia-Pacific will prove to be of great use to students and scholars of Asian politics and society, as well as international and comparative politics.

Resource security is a new battleground in the international politics of the Asia-Pacific. With demand for minerals and energy surging, disputes are emerging over access and control of scarce natural resource endowments. Drawing on critical insights from political economy, this book explains why resources have emerged as a source of inter-state conflict in the region.