Regionalism is of growing relevance to the political economy of Asia-Pacific. In the wake of the Asian financial crisis, this timely volume investigates in four different chapters the dynamics of Asian regionalism during the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically, it focuses on Japanese and Chinese business networks in Northeast and Southeast Asia and the effects of economic, monetary and financial policies on regional cooperation. Asian regionalism is an important factor that both complements and shapes corporate strategies and government policies in a globalizing economy.

Financial markets are given to instability, but some financial systems are more crisis-prone than others. Natasha Hamilton-Hart's historically grounded investigation of central banks, governments, and private bankers in Southeast Asia helps explain why. Focusing on Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, she shows how the long-term development and internal attributes of central banks and state financial institutions shape their interactions with private bankers and influence their ability to manage the financial sector.The politics of finance in Southeast Asia is understudied, Hamilton-Hart contends, and central banks themselves virtually ignored. Yet central banks play a pivotal role in determining a country's vulnerability to regional and global financial pressures such as the currency and financial crises of the late 1990s. Southeast Asian central bankers were major players in the events surrounding these upheavals. Countries in the region experienced the economic chaos in different ways, however, as the central banks of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore drew upon different institutional capacities and legacies. Asian States, Asian Bankers brings new case material to the field of political economics and delineates the operation of central banks and their roles in the monetary and financial policies of three Southeast Asian states. In addition, Hamilton-Hart's work bridges two areas that have often been studied apart from each other: the national-level politics of financial management and the transnational orientation of many bankers in Southeast Asia.

In Hard Interests, Soft Illusions, Natasha Hamilton-Hart explores the belief held by foreign policy elites in much of Southeast Asia Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam that the United States is a relatively benign power. She argues that this belief is an important factor underpinning U.S. preeminence in the region, because beliefs inform specific foreign policy decisions and form the basis for broad orientations of alignment, opposition, or nonalignment. Such foundational beliefs, however, do not simply reflect objective facts and reasoning processes. Hamilton-Hart argues that they are driven by both interests in this case the political and economic interests of ruling groups in Southeast Asia and illusions.

Hamilton-Hart shows how the information landscape and standards of professional expertise within the foreign policy communities of Southeast Asia shape beliefs about the United States. These opinions frequently rest on deeply biased understandings of national history that dominate perceptions of the past and underlie strategic assessments of the present and future. Members of the foreign policy community rarely engage in probabilistic reasoning or effortful knowledge-testing strategies. This does not mean, she emphasizes, that the beliefs are insincere or merely instrumental rationalizations. Rather, cognitive and affective biases in the ways humans access and use information mean that interests influence beliefs; how they do so depends on available information, the social organization and practices of a professional sphere, and prevailing standards for generating knowledge."

This clear and timely book presents the first sustained and structured analysis of globalization in the East Asian context, exploring the strategies used by East Asian countries to cope with the forces of globalization. Eschewing both neoliberal "hyperglobalization" chants and neorealist "globaloney" castigation, the authors integrate a broad conceptual framework with region- and country-specific case studies. Specifically, the book poses and addresses three major questions about East Asia's globalization. First, it identifies the range of contending conceptualizations of globalization that have underpinned the region's changing and contradictory views in the 1990s. Second, the book critically probes the discrepancy between promise and performance-the myths and realities-of East Asian globalization and the complex interaction of challenges and responses. Third, the authors evaluates the impacts and consequences of globalization for East Asia's political, economic, social, cultural, ecological, and security development. These questions clarify the often-murky nature, challenges, responses, and consequences of globalization, especially in light of the Asian financial crisis and moves toward recovery.

This clear and timely book presents the first sustained and structured analysis of globalization in the East Asian context, exploring the strategies used by East Asian countries to cope with the forces of globalization. Eschewing both neoliberal OhyperglobalizationO chants and neorealist OglobaloneyO castigation, the authors integrate a broad conceptual framework with region- and country-specific case studies. Specifically, the book poses and addresses three major questions about East AsiaOs globalization. First, it identifies the range of contending conceptualizations of globalization that have underpinned the regionOs changing and contradictory views in the 1990s. Second, the book critically probes the discrepancy between promise and performance_the myths and realities_of East Asian globalization and the complex interaction of challenges and responses. Third, the authors evaluates the impacts and consequences of globalization for East AsiaOs political, economic, social, cultural, ecological, and security development. These questions clarify the often-murky nature, challenges, responses, and consequences of globalization, especially in light of the Asian financial crisis and moves toward recovery.