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LIBS A201
The Pacific Century
We would like to welcome you to LIBS A201, The Pacific Century. This is intended as both an introduction and a guide to the course.
In 1940 Henry Luce, the founder of the Time-Life media empire predicted that the twentieth century would be the American century. Intriguingly the view of many observers, over 50 years later, is that the twenty-first century will be the century of the Asia-Pacific. They offer several reasons to support their prediction. According to the World Bank, for instance, by 2015 three of the four largest national economies -- the USA, China and Japan -- will be located in the Asia-Pacific region. To a considerable extent, the centre of gravity of the global economy is already in the process of moving to the Asia-Pacific. Moreover, it is argued, the end of the Cold War has seen the agenda of the international community increasingly focused on economic concerns. As a consequence the nations of the Asia-Pacific geopolitically will be among the key global players over the coming decades. These and other reasons of a similar character are frequently deployed in the media, but even if some of these predictions may not be wholly fulfilled the emergence and growing impact of the AsiaPacific on the global stage is now universally acknowledged and recognized. Political observers from other regions often look at the AsiaPacific with a combination of admiration and envy, and wish to unlock the secret of its success and then try to emulate it. So it is of considerable importance and interest to account for the emergence of this region and to understand the political, social, and cultural references within which the remarkable economic growth of the region has taken place and to some extent continues to occur.
LIBS A201 sets out to provide you with an understanding of this fascinating region. However, the first point that needs to be established is which nations are a part of this region. The Asia-Pacific is not self-defining and historically it has been constituted in numerous ways. It has included different places at different times. For this course, the Asia-Pacific covers East Asia, Australasia, North America, the Pacific Islands, and some countries on the west coast of Latin America. LIBS A201's definition of the Asia-Pacific is broadly based on the countries that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum, which is perhaps the most significant intergovernmental organization of the region. Collectively the members of APEC account for approximately 50 per cent of both world trade and global GNP, but they are also a very heterogeneous group. The Asia-Pacific of LIBS A201 and of APEC includes both the wealthiest nation in the world, the USA, and the most populous, the People's Republic of China. LIBS A201 looks at Japan, one of the most important and richest countries, as well as the Pacific Islands, which include some of the poorest parts of the region. The course examines the so-called 'tiger' economies, such as Taiwan and South Korea whose economic growth over the past few decades has been so striking, as well as those who have not been quite so successful. In other words, the Asia-Pacific of LIBS A201 is an area of remarkable diversity and richness, particularly in its peoples and languages, as well as in its national histories and traditions. But, as you can imagine, trying to understand a region of such diversity and richness is a considerable academic challenge. So how does LIBS A201 attempt to deal with this important and extraordinary region?
| The course books |  |
LIBS A201 has a familiar package of books, audio-visual materials, plus Study Guides, and we want to give you a brief outline, in this guide, of the various components of the course. There are, in the first instance, three principal books: Books 1 and 2 and The Asia-Pacific Profile. They examine different and distinct, but closely interrelated, aspects of the Asia-Pacific experience. Interestingly both of these volumes, to a greater or lesser extent, have to consider one very fundamental question, whether it is appropriate and meaningful to talk of the Asia-Pacific as a region. Does its very diversity and richness mean the connections that link this heterogeneous group of nations together are so loose that they, in fact, tend to drive it apart? This is an important and key question which cannot be ignored in any discussion of the Asia-Pacific. The response of LIBS A201 -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- is that there are commonalties and unifying elements which provide a form of cement for the countries of the Asia-Pacific, despite their evident differences, but it is an issue which has to be addressed with care and subtlety. The books in this series examine this central question within the context of their different concerns.
Books 1 and 2
Asia Pacific in the New World Order
The first book that you are asked to study is Asia-Pacific in the New World Order. The focus of this volume is principally on the international relations of the region. The demise of the Cold War and the end of hostilities that divided the globe since the end of the Second World War has, to some extent, created the conditions for the emergence and impact of the AsiaPacific on the world order. This book looks at the principal security problems of the region and how they are being resolved. To what extent is the Asia-Pacific an ascendant power complex within the contemporary world and does the emergence of the Asia-Pacific pose a potential challenge to the existing world order? Book 1 draws on a range of materials in order to answer this and other questions as well as to understand the complex interplay between global forces, and regional and national concerns which have transformed the Asia-Pacific into one of the most dynamic and potentially dominant global regions in the world system.
Economic Dynamism in the Asia-Pacific
The course then turns its attention to the terrain of political economy. The principal reason for the global interest with the Asia-Pacific lies in its remarkable economic story. Economic Dynamism in the Asia-Pacific: the Growth of Integration and Competitiveness (Book 2) examines this phenomenon. The dramatic collapse of several currencies, including those of Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, plus the turbulence on the region's stock markets during 1997, may well have a consequent impact on the future economic growth of the Asia-Pacific. Nevertheless, the economic record of the last few decades is a notable achievement that needs to be understood. This book examines the dramatic rise in importance of the Asia-Pacific as an economic region, the sources of that growth, its future development and the consequences for the global economy. It establishes the extent to which the Asia-Pacific has developed as a regional system through an analysis of the patterns of integration between the principal economies. Also examined is the relationship between the key national economies of Japan, China and the USA in the regional economy.
The Asia-Pacific Profile
The Asia-Pacific Profile is a substantial volume which will provide you with a comprehensive digest of information about the Asia-Pacific and its individual nations. It has been designed as a resource to enhance your study of the other course materials. The Profile displays its information in a variety of ways. There is an initial part, containing a set of specially produced maps, which presents a range of social, political and economic data derived across the region over time. The aim of this part is to provide you with an insight to the Asia-Pacific as a whole and to offer a context for the next part, which examines, in detail, individual countries. Country by country data are presented in such a way as to allow for easy comparison between any of the countries on a range of issues and subjects. Finally, there is a part consisting of key documents from the Asia-Pacific. The AsiaPacific Profile provides you with a unique collection of a wide range of materials that informs and develops your understanding of the other books in the course.
You should note that LIBS A201 The Pacific Century is derived from the UK Open University course DD302 Pacific Studies. The Open University course is twice as long as LIBS A201, and comprises four books plus The Asia-Pacific Profile and associated course materials. The two additional books for the UK Open University course are Culture and Society in the Asia-Pacific and Governance in the Asia-Pacific.
In some of the audio visual material for LIBS A201 you will find reference to the wider focus of DD302, particularly to these additional two books. Also in Books 1 and 2 that you are studying references to the other books are made in bold type. For the purposes of your study these references can be ignored. The first two books and The Asia-Pacific Profile make up a coherent package that can be studied on their own. The two Study Guides associated with Books 1 and 2 have been specially adapted for LIBS A201, but there may be some residual gestures still remaining towards the wider themes of these other books.
| Course themes | |
It is important for you to note that there are connections and similarities between these three books. Collectively LIBS A201 sets out to understand the Asia-Pacific experience. Books 1 and 2 examine and analyse distinct aspects of the regional experience but there are close links between the political and the economic aspects to this experience. Perhaps the most important of these connections are a set of shared themes that surface and are present throughout the course. There are three themes that repeatedly emerge, they are dynamism, differences and disjunctures. So what do they mean?
The first theme, dynamism, refers to one of the central characteristics of the Asia-Pacific experience. Indeed, one of the key reasons there is significant interest in this region is because of its economic dynamism, to a large extent, characterizes the growing impact of this region in the international arena as well as the reform and modification to politicoeconomic arrangements and processes that is taking place.
The second theme, differences, deals with both the 'unique' or 'exceptional' characteristic of the Asia-Pacific as well as the extraordinary diversity that exists within it. One way of characterizing this theme is to refer to Asian values, a topic which recurs in this course as well as in most discourses on the Asia-Pacific. In some other contexts it may be called the 'Asian way', but whatever the name, the claim that there is a distinctive cohort of Asian beliefs and practices is made frequently by sections of the political class in the region. This is a claim that is interrogated in each of the principal areas of the Asia-Pacific experience examined in LIBS A201. Similarly, the issue of diversity is rehearsed extensively in each of the volumes. The quite extraordinary political and economic diversity is extensively documented and it is one of the key motifs of the Asia-Pacific.
The final theme of the course is disjunctures, which refers to the contradictions, tensions and conflicts in the region. An example of this theme would be the tension that exists between traditional and modern forms of social organization evident in the Asia-Pacific. Similarly, the desire to maintain Asian values in the face of the powerful influence of Western values is an example of disjunctures. Further illustrations of disjunctures would be the conflict between economic development on the one hand and social and environmental costs on the other; the tensions and potential conflict between government regulation and the forces of the market; or between protecting a national economy and opening it to further trade liberalization. Disjunctures are present in all areas of the Asia-Pacific experience.
| Audio-visual | |
Pacific Studies also has a substantial audio-visual component which is central to the course. There are four 30-minute television programmes and two audio-cassettes. Both the television programmes and the audiocassettes have been designed to be an integral element of LIBS A201. The concerns, themes and central issues of the course are developed in the audio-visual materials but developed in a manner that is appropriate for the mediums of television and audio. The first television programme explores the way the Asia-Pacific has been 'imagined' or constructed. A further programme follows the US Navy as it 'patrols' the Pacific Ocean. The operations across the region of the large Taiwanese-based transnational corporation, Evergreen, is observed in another programme. The final programme in the series deals with the Pacific Island of Banaba and a return journey to the island that was made in 1997 by those who used to live on it. The first audio-cassette introduces the course and deals with the concerns of Asia-Pacific in the New World Order, while Audio-cassette 2 focuses on Economic Dynamism in the Asia-Pacific. There are separate audio-visual study guides that outline these TV programmes further.
| Study Guides | |
In addition to the three principal texts and the audio-visual component, two Study Guides have been designed to provide you with learning activities that are not in the books. They are a key and central element of the course and you should rely on these guides to help you plan your progress through all the course materials -- the books as well as the audio-visual component. You will receive a range of advice in the guides, but most importantly each guide will deal with the individual chapters in each book, the key points in them and the central questions and issues that emerge from them. You should start each book with the appropriate Study Guide, and read the introduction and essentials section with considerable care before you begin the first chapter, then return to the guide after each chapter.
You should now start reading Study Guide 1 on the following page.
