The importance of East Asia in international politics is continually growing, as United States trade across the Pacific now exceeds their trade across the Atlantic. "New Directions for American Policy in Asia" examines current United States foreign policy in East Asia, surveys current problems and our relations with each of the major powers in the region, and makes recommendations for improvement. Gordon argues that although the region is at present a "good" environment, forces which adversely affect the U.S. are already at work.

As the cold war ends, the United States is being forced to reassess the dominant role it has played in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific during the decades that followed World War II. Bringing readers up to date on policy trends in the area, the author provides a general overview as well as detailed analyses of key issues in individual nations and regions. The author concludes by placing these regional developments in the context of the ongoing debate in the United States over an appropriate foreign policy in the post-cold war world.

China's growing economy and military power may allow it to challenge US influence in East and Southeast Asia. Wayne Bert examines the likelihood of this and the impact it would have on Southeast Asian security. The approach taken by both the US and China will affect the outcome of this struggle and both the Southeast Asian commitment to economic growth and the development of regional institutions will encourage peaceful evolution and a power transition that avoids major conflict.

There is widespread agreement that the world's most successful developing countries in the 1980s were those in Southeast Asia. Following in the footsteps of postwar Japan and more recently Korea, the populations of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines have made enormous strides in income, industrial and agricultural production, exports, education, health, nutrition, consumption, and other development indicators. This book brings together political scientists, economists, officials of Asian governments, the United States, and representatives of the multilateral banks to analyze and explain Southeast Asia's extraordinary growth. Chapters and contributors to The Southeast Asian Economic Miracle include: "Recent Developments and Future Prospects of Indonesia" by Anwar Nasution; "The Economic Experience and Prospects of Thailand" by Sukhumbhand Paribatra; "The Development of the Former Indochina States" by Frederick Brown; "Trade and Investment in Southeast Asian Development" by Stephen Parker; and "Managing Renewable Resources in Southeast Asia: The Problem of Deforestation" by Gareth Porter. Among the critical questions that the contributors address are: Is the success of the 1980s and early 1990s a permanent part of the world's economic landscape? How will this region react to the growth of China's vast productive capacity and to the faltering of Japan's economy? What will be the effect of U.S. military disengagement caused by domestic budgetary concerns and the end of the cold war? The Southeast Asian Economic Miracle is an important study of the shifting winds of the political economy of growth in our time—the movement away from a command to a free market environment. It will be an essential resource for political scientists, Asia area scholars, economists, and policymakers.

While the US-Japan alliance has strengthened since the end of the Cold War, Japan has, almost unnoticed, been building security ties with other partners, in the process reducing the centrality of the US in Japan’s security. This book explains why this is happening. Japan pursued security isolationism during the Cold War, but the US was the exception. Japan hosted US bases and held joint military exercises even while shunning contacts with other militaries. Japan also made an exception to its weapons export ban to allow exports to the US. Yet, since the end of the Cold War, Japan’s security has undergone a quiet transformation, moving away from a singular focus on the US as its sole security partner. Tokyo has begun diversifying its security ties. This book traces and explains this diversification. The country has initiated security dialogues with Asian neighbors, assumed a leadership role in promoting regional multilateral security cooperation, and begun building bilateral security ties with a range of partners, from Australia and India to the European Union. Japan has even lifted its ban on weapons exports and co-development with non-US partners. This edited volume explores this trend of decreasing US centrality alongside the continued, and perhaps even growing, security (inter) dependence with the US. New Directions in Japan’s Security is an essential resource for scholars focused on Japan’s national security. It will also interest on a wider basis those wishing to understand why Japan is developing non-American directions in its security strategy.

The eighteen essays collected in this book originate from a conference of the same title, held at the Wingspread Conference Center in October of 1993. Leading scholars were invited to reflect on their specialties in American religious history in ways that summarized both where the field is and where it ought to move in the decades to come. The essays are organized according to four general themes: places and regions, universal themes, transformative events, and marginal groups and ethnocultural "outsiders." They address a wide range of specific topics including Puritanism, Protestantism and economic behavior, gender and sexuality in American Protestantism, and the twentieth-century de-Christianization of American public culture. Among the contributors are such distinguished scholars as David D. Hall, Donald G. Matthews, Allen C. Guelzo, Gordon S. Wood, Daniel Walker Howe, Robert Wuthnow, Jon Butler, David A. Hollinger, Harry S. Stout, and John Higham. Taken together, these essays reveal a rapidly expanding field of study that is breaking out of its traditional confines and spilling into all of American history. The book takes the measure of the changes of the last quarter-century and charts numerous challenges to future work.

Asian Americans are a growing, minority population in the United States. After a 46 percent population growth between 2000 and 2010 according to the 2010 Census, there are 17.3 million Asian Americans today. Yet Asian Americans as a category are a diverse set of peoples from over 30 distinctive Asian-origin subgroups that defy simplistic descriptions or generalizations. They face a wide range of issues and problems within the larger American social universe despite the persistence of common stereotypes that label them as a “model minority” for the generalized attributes offered uncritically in many media depictions. Asian American Society: An Encyclopedia provides a thorough introduction to the wide–ranging and fast–developing field of Asian American studies. Published with the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS), two volumes of the four-volume encyclopedia feature more than 300 A-to-Z articles authored by AAAS members and experts in the field who examine the social, cultural, psychological, economic, and political dimensions of the Asian American experience. The next two volumes of this work contain approximately 200 annotated primary documents, organized chronologically, that detail the impact American society has had on reshaping Asian American identities and social structures over time. Features: More than 300 articles authored by experts in the field, organized in A-to-Z format, help students understand Asian American influences on American life, as well as the impact of American society on reshaping Asian American identities and social structures over time. A core collection of primary documents and key demographic and social science data provide historical context and key information. A Reader's Guide groups related entries by broad topic areas and themes; a Glossary defines key terms; and a Resource Guide provides lists of books, academic journals, websites and cross references. The multimedia digital edition is enhanced with 75 video clips and features strong search-and-browse capabilities through the electronic Reader’s Guide, detailed index, and cross references. Available in both print and online formats, this collection of essays is a must-have resource for general and research libraries, Asian American/ethnic studies libraries, and social science libraries.

Ten outstanding specialists in Chinese foreign policy draw on new theories, methods, and sources to examine China's use of force, its response to globalization, and the role of domestic politics in its foreign policy.

Long before the arrival of Western emissaries and powers, East Asian peoples and states were deeply involved in world affairs. In this sweeping account, Warren I. Cohen explores four millennia of international relations from the vantage points of China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Writing incisively and authoritatively for readers at all levels, Cohen paints a broad but revealing portrait of East Asia’s place in the world. He defines the region’s boundaries widely, looking beyond China, Japan, and Korea to include Southeast Asia, and extends the scope of international relations to consider the vital role of cultural and economic exchanges. Cohen examines the system of Chinese domination in the ancient world, the exchanges between East Asia and the Islamic world, Chinese sea voyages to Arabia and East Africa, and the emergence of a European-defined international system. He chronicles the new imperialism of the 1890s, the ascendancy of Japan, the trials of World War II, the drama of the Cold War, and the transformations of East Asian states toward the close of the twentieth century. By showing that East Asia has often been preeminent on the world stage, this book not only recasts the past but also adds crucial historical perspective on international politics today. This second edition of East Asia at the Center features new material on the first decades of the twenty-first century.