The Political Economy of East Asia: Striving for Wealth and Power / Edition 1

by Ming Wan

Overview

For students of international political economy, it is hard to ignore the growth, dynamism, and global impact of East Asia. Japan and China are two of the largest economies in the world, in a region now accounting for almost 30 percent more trade than the United States, Canada, and Mexico combined. What explains this increasing wealth and burgeoning power? In his new text, Ming Wan illustrates the diverse ways that the domestic politics and policies of countries within East Asia affect the region’s production, trade, exchange rates, and development, and are in turn affected by global market forces and international institutions.

Unlike most other texts on East Asian political economy that are essentially comparisons of major individual countries, Wan effectively integrates key thematic issues and country-specific examples to present a comprehensive overview of East Asia’s role in the world economy. The text first takes a comparative look at the region’s economic systems and institutions to explore their evolution—a rich and complex story that looks beyond the response to Western pressures. Later chapters are organized around close examination of production, trade, finance, and monetary relations. While featuring extended discussion of China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, Wan is inclusive in his analysis, with coverage including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines.

The text is richly illustrated with more than fifty tables, figures, and maps that present the latest economic and political data to help students better visualize trends and demographics. Each chapter ends with extensive lists of suggested readings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933116914
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	10/17/2007
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ming Wan is professor of government and politics and director of the Global Affairs Program at George Mason University. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard from the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and the Pacific Basin Research Center, and has been a visiting research scholar at Tsukuba University and a George Washington University-Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Luce Fellow in Asian Policy Studies. He has published three books: Sino-Japanese Relations: Interaction, Logic, and Transformation; Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations: Defining and Defending National Interests; and Japan Between Asia and the West: Economic Power and Strategic Balance. His current research interests include political economy of security, political economy of East Asia, and Sino-Japanese relations.