This anthology brings together a series of research papers on how state and societal actors in selected Asian countries cope with external and domestic pressures to close the productivity – wealth – power gap with the high-income countries. The global context for these efforts is created by the waning of American power, and the rise of China, worldwide and even more so in Asia. The general objective of the work is to contribute to a better understanding of how local forces respond to the challenges of catch-up development, both on the domestic and global levels. The time period covered spans...

This chapter looks at the problem of religion, family and military in modern state building in the ‘East Asian Three’: Japan, Korea and China.¹ More specifically, it will seek to understand how these traditional forms of public authority have been transformed in these countries, and the institutional consequences of this transformation. The general expectations of modernisation theory from Max Weber onwards² suggest that, with the monopolisation of public authority by the state in modern state-building, these traditional forces transform themselves or are shaped into a type of intermediary institution. These forces lose their capacity as a form of public authority,...

The rise of ‘nationalism’ as a phenomenon and a concept is mostly discussed within the context of European and American history, in particular in connection with the building of nation-states.¹ In most European languages, the equivalent to ‘nationalism’ is used, but the concept is known under a variety of names in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.² In this essay ‘nationalism’ is treated as a particular form of ‘identity’ that may combine elements from group sociology, political mobilisation, as well as religion and ideologies. As the content of the term differs with time and place, it should not be considered the creation...

All modern, stratified societies are (by definition) dominated by elites. Since these elites prosper under the status quo, they have a vested interest in maintaining it, or making sure they reap the benefits of any change. In the process, they engage in rent-seeking, defined as ‘resource-wasting activities of individuals in seeking transfers of wealth through the aegis of the state’ (Buchanan, Tollison & Tullock 1980: ix), or more broadly, as using political power to obtain economic gains. This regularly leads to institutional settings where individual efforts obtain individual benefits while creating social waste (Xia 2000: 94). Social waste translates into overall...

The objective of this paper is to discuss the role ofulama’or Islamic scholars in setting relationship between the state and Islam in late twentieth-century Malaysia. This is a study of their social network, associations, activities, and ideas in contemporary Malaysian society. This study is concerned with relationships between Islamic movements, political parties, and the government.

‘Ulama”is a plural form of an Arabic word‘a’lim’which literally means ‘man of knowledge.’ In Malaysian societya’limis called‘ustaz’, which means ‘teacher’ in Arabic. They are conveyers of Islamic knowledge or‘ulum shari’a.’The social network ofulama’is...

In the course of three months, Timor Leste has held three successive elections, all reputed as ‘free and fair’ by several international observation teams – who have nevertheless raised critical issues in the way the whole process was carried out from the beginning.¹ If all goes well, a period of up to five years will now elapse before new elections will be called, as the stabilisation of the country will be enforced by those who have fought the last elections and accepted their results, both as government and as opposition. This is the moment to review critically the kinds of...

Since the abrupt collapse of the East Timorese security institutions in April-May 2006 and the ensuing political crisis, the country has been going through cycles of complete desperation to rounds of some civility amongst its politicians and general populace. The political crisis became so deep that it has resulted in more than 150,000 Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) and in the intervention of international military forces and police services to perform basic security functions.

Despite the 2006 upheaval in the spring and summer, the refugee problem has been slightly reduced¹ and the 2007 presidential and legislative elections have taken place without major...

What is populism? In 1981, one of the most comprehensive books on populism was published. Margaret Canovan, the author, notes in the introduction to her book that the ‘term is exceptionally vague and refers in different contexts to a bewildering variety of phenomena’ (Canovan 1981: 3). Notwithstanding, I should like to briefly explore the original meaning of the term populism and explain its current usage, which should enable the reader to obtain a clear and distinct understanding of what definition is used in this study.

The existence of populism as a political ideology can be traced back to the early...

The remarkable economic growth of East and Southeast Asia in the closing decades of the twentieth century, and the significant contributions of overseas Chinese to this development, brought about a lot of interest among scholars, professional analysts, and policymakers to explain the roots of the success of overseas Chinese. The phenomenon of rising China and the role played by the overseas Chinese investments as one of the most important engines of growth in China further added to interest in this topic.

While this spectacular dominance of overseas Chinese economic activities in Asia has renewed scholars’ interests in the ethnic Chinese...

Security cooperation between Moscow and Beijing has intensified over the past decade though the medium of the Russo-Chinese ‘Strategic Partnership’ (Wilkins 2008).¹ This partnership is based upon shared interests, economic cooperation, and corresponding national worldviews, and has developed, at least partially, in response to American hegemonic ambitions. A fundamental element of the partnership has been the creation and expansion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Central Asian region. Kozhokin identifies ‘one of the tasks of the strategic Russo-Chinese partnership in its regional aspect is to create a new security model for Central Asia. This entails, above all, collaboration...

Since 2000, RTAs have proliferated among East Asian countries. An important driver was increased intra-Asian trade, as regional value chains became more important, highlighting the need for institutional arrangements to facilitate trade. The consequences included deepening of ASEAN and flourishing of bilateral RTAs. The ASEAN Free Trade Area, announced in 1992 and implemented cautiously during the 1990s, was implemented more enthusiastically, and in 2003 an ASEAN Economic Community blueprint was adopted. China assumed a leading role in Asian regionalism after 2000, notably in concluding an RTA with ASEAN. Japan responded by encouraging a wider grouping, the East Asian Summit, which...

In recent years, free trade agreements (FTA) involving developing countries have proliferated in various forms. Some new phenomena concerning FTAs are: enlargement of existing FTAs and deeper economic integration, involving not only flows of goods, but also of services and investment. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)¹ provides a good example of such an FTA. China and ASEAN signed a Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation, which calls for the establishment of an FTA between China and the six older member countries of ASEAN by 2010, and between China and the four new ASEAN member countries by 2015. The...

The emergence of two Asian giants – China and India – as upcoming industrial producers, traders and investors in the world economy is rapidly changing the geopolitical landscape of Asia. That change is full of contradictions. For example, in real GDP, China is the second largest economy in the world. It is also the second largest exporter. The monetary authority of the country accumulated the largest foreign exchange reserves of all. However, in per capita terms, China is in the lower-middle income category. About one-third of its massive population lives on $2 a day or less. Paradoxical as it is...