Bilateral Legacies In East And Southeast Asia

This edited volume examines the concept of overhangs or legacies or negative stereotypical images in international relations and their impact on bilateral relations between geographically proximate states in East Asia. The case studies chosen - Japan-Korea, Japan-China, Vietnam-China, Thailand-Myanmar and Thailand-Cambodia - demonstrate conclusively that bilateral overhangs or legacies have a significant impact on contemporary international relations. Such images are regularly replicated and stoked by a variety of constituencies including state agencies for their own selfish interests. The evidence also points to the fact that such bilateral relationships are relatively self-contained and often operate with their own dynamics. Powerful condensation symbols are appropriated to weave a story of the virtuous self and the stereotypical other. This negative image and its replication is important to an understanding of turbulent bilateral relations in East Asia and also helps to inform how such relations can be brought to an even keel.

Illustrates how the political and social fallout from the World War II is still alive and divisive in South and East Asia.

By looking back to understand the contemporary political and economic landscape of Southeast Asia, these essays shed light on how modern Southeast Asia has evolved. Special focus centres on US engagement with the region, by both governmental and non-governmental organisations.

It is well known that Taiwan and South Korea, both former Japanese colonies, achieved rapid growth and industrialization after 1960. The performance of former European and American colonies (Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) has been less impressive. Some scholars have attributed the difference to better infrastructure and greater access to education in Japan’s colonies. Anne Booth examines and critiques such arguments in this ambitious comparative study of economic development in East and Southeast Asia from the beginning of the twentieth century until the 1960s. Booth takes an in-depth look at the nature and consequences of colonial policies for a wide range of factors, including the growth of export-oriented agriculture and the development of manufacturing industry. She evaluates the impact of colonial policies on the growth and diversification of the market economy and on the welfare of indigenous populations. Indicators such as educational enrollments, infant mortality rates, and crude death rates are used to compare living standards across East and Southeast Asia in the 1930s. Her analysis of the impact that Japan’s Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and later invasion and conquest had on the region and the living standards of its people leads to a discussion of the painful and protracted transition to independence following Japan’s defeat. Throughout Booth emphasizes the great variety of economic and social policies pursued by the various colonial governments and the diversity of outcomes. Lucidly and accessibly written, Colonial Legacies offers a balanced and elegantly nuanced exploration of a complex historical reality. It will be a lasting contribution to scholarship on the modern economic history of East and Southeast Asia and of special interest to those concerned with the dynamics of development and the history of colonial regimes. An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched, a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that the work may be freely downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require permission from the publisher.

This book intends to examine the relationship between East Asia and Southeast Asia across three themes: historical perspectives, economic flows of capital and people, and socio-cultural connections. While a substantial number of chapters in the book focus on overseas Chinese (living in Indonesia) and their connections with China and Taiwan historically and contemporarily, they also provide in-depth knowledge of international relationship between East Asia and Southeast Asia.Part One, 'Contending Regional Approaches', consists of four chapters that help readers understand the involvement of East Asia from a historical context. The first chapter on Taiwan before 1975 is followed by a chapter on Taiwan's strategy toward Southeast Asia after the 1980s. The remaining two chapters focus on China-Southeast Asia and Japan-Southeast Asia relations.Part Two, 'Economic Flows of Capital & People', consists of six chapters that mainly examine the flow of capital and people between Indonesia and Taiwan from the colonial period to the present and how this flow changed both societies.Part Three, 'Socio-Cultural Connections', consists of three chapters. This part is a unique contribution to the scholarship that focuses on the transformation of both traditional and popular culture among Southeast Asia, China, and Taiwan by focusing on different agents.

Five hundred years later, a conference held in Singapore brought together a large group of scholars from widely different national, academic and disciplinary contexts, to analyse and discuss the intricate consequences of Portuguese interactions in Asia over the longue duree. The result of these discussions is a stimulating set of case studies that, as a rule, combine original archival and/or field research with innovative historiographical perspectives. Luso-Asian communities, real and imagined, and Luso-Asian heritage, material and symbolic, are studied with depth and insight. The range of thematic, chronological and geographic areas covered in these proceeding is truly remarkable, showing not only the extraordinary relevance of revisiting Luso-Asian interactions in the longer term, but also the surprising dynamism within an area of studies which seemed on the verge of exhaustion. After all, archives from all over the world, from Rio de Janeiro to London, from Lisbon to Rome, and from Goa to Macao, might still hold some secrets on the subject of Luso-Asian relations, when duly explored by resourceful scholars.

This volume examines contemporary diplomatic, economic, and security competition between China and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region. The book outlines the role that Sino-Japanese competition plays in East Asian security, an area of study largely overlooked in contemporary writing on Asian security, which tends to focus on US–China relations and/or US hegemony in Asia. The volume focuses on Chinese and Japanese foreign policy under President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, and regional security dynamics within and between Asian states/institutions since 2012. It employs regional security complex theory as a theoretical framework to view Chinese and Japanese competition in the Asian region. In doing so, the volume draws on a "levels of analysis" approach to demonstrate the value in looking at security in the Asia-Pacific from a regional rather than global perspective. The vast majority of existing research on the region’s security tends to focus on great power relations and treats Asia as a sub-region within the larger global security architecture. In contrast, this volume shows how competition between the two largest Asian economies shapes East Asia’s security environment and drives security priorities across Asia’s sub-regions. As such, this collection provides an important contribution to discussion on security in Asia; one with potential to influence both political and military policy makers, security practitioners, and scholars. This book will be of much interest to students of Asian politics, regional security, diplomacy, and international relations.

In 1986, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) adopted the Doi Moi (Renovation) policy at its sixth national congress, opening up a new chapter in the country's modern history. Under Doi Moi, Vietnam has undergone significant socio-economic, political and foreign policy reforms that have transformed the country in many meaningful ways. This edited volume aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the multiple aspects and transformations of Vietnam's foreign policy over the past thirty years. The book is divided into three sections. The first covers the broader framework of Vietnam's foreign policy making and the historical evolution of Vietnam's diplomacy under Doi Moi. The second examines Vietnam's bilateral relationships with its major partners, namely the United States, China, Japan, India, Russia, its smaller neighbours (Cambodia and Laos), and ASEAN. Finally, the book looks into two major issues in Vietnam's current foreign policy: the management of the South China Sea disputes and the international economic integration process. As the most informative, updated and comprehensive volume on Vietnam's foreign policy under Doi Moi, the book is a useful reference for academics, policymakers and students, as well as anyone interested in contemporary Vietnam in general and its foreign policy in particular.