McGougall, Derek

51N5JKEQQ2L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_Summary

As a significant component of world politics, Asia Pacific confronts many major issues. This is a region in which the United States, China, and Japan relate directly to on another. The United States has been the dominant power in the region in the post-1945 period, and this situation has been enhanced in the post–Cold War period. At the same time China, which embarked on an ambitious program of economic modernization in the late 1970s, has grown steadily stronger. Are China and the United States on a collision course or can they cooperate? Where does Japan, as the world’s second largest economic power, fit in this picture? Japan has maintained its alliance with the United States, while also developing a more independent direction; it does not wish to see the region dominated by China. Tensions have continued throughout the early twenty-first century in relation to both Taiwan and Korea. Are these tensions likely to result in war at some point? In Southeast Asia the various states have faced numerous “nation building” challenges, none more so than Indonesia. Many groups oppose the authority of the existing states, and these tensions often spill over into the international arena. Throughout Asia Pacific one can also observe the expanding presence of regional and global organizations. Does this presence amount to much, and if so what? Are we moving into an era when states, both major and lesser powers, will become less significant for Asia Pacific international politics? This book is concerned with this whole range of issues and questions as they appear in the current phase of world politics in Asia Pacific. In providing a study of international politics in Asia Pacific, we need to have working definitions of both “international politics” and “Asia Pacific.” Both terms are often taken for granted but, in fact, both are open to debate. We will begin with a discussion of how the terms international politics and Asia Pacific are used in this book, and then examine the historical context of international politics in Asia Pacific, and some of the major features of contemporary Asia Pacific. At the end of the chapter there is an overview of the plan of the book.