By the late 1970s, scholars and journalists were quick to proclaim the dawn of a new era--the Age of the Pacific. The 1980s--with the economic growth of Japan and the Four Dragons, the industrialization of several Southeast Asian states, the growth of new industries on the West Coast of North America and decline of industry in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast, and the collapse of centrally planned economies--seemed to confirm this prognosis. Yet, despite consensus on these issues, there are still questions regarding the future directions of an impending Pacific Century. This contributed volume considers those questions from a world-historical perspective, with one chapter from the viewpoint of a friendly critic of that perspective. The work opens with an introductory section, including Palat's introductory overview and a consideration of the amorphous nature of the term Pacific Rim. Part II continues to analyze the changing patterns of the relational networks along Asia's Pacific parimeters as integral parts of the ongoing restructuring of the capitalist world-economy, while Part III examines the individual trajectories of two Asian giants--India and China. The final section explores how changes in the patterning of production processes have contoured the nature of antisystemic movements in the 1980s.

This book situates the evolution of capitalist economies along Asia's Pacific Rim after the Second World War within broader global, political and economic changes. Specifically, it charts their growth at the interface of periodic crises and successive waves of restructuring, and links changes in the world economy to shifts in regional dynamics in east and southeast Asia. It suggests that while the expansion of Japanese corporate networks was crucial to the emergence of the region as a low-cost exporter to the world, the reintegration of China into the world market will free the region from its dependence on the US as a market of last resort.

To counter Eurocentric notions of long-term historical change, Wet Rice Cultivation and the Emergence of the Indian Ocean draws upon the histories of societies based on wet-rice cultivation to chart an alternate pattern of social evolution and state formation and traces inter-state linkages and the growth of commercialization without capitalism.

This book situates the evolution of the high growth economies along Asia's Pacific Rim after the Second World War within broader global political and economic changes. Specifically, it charts the growth of capitalist economies in the region throughout periodic crises and successive waves of restructuring, and links changes in the world economy to shifts in the domestic political economies of East and Southeast Asia. It suggests that the financial crisis of 1997-98 laid the basis for a new phase of regional economic integration in Pacific-Asia.
Key issues examined include:
* comparison of patterns of state intervention and industrial organization in individual countries
* history of US power in the region
* analysis of class and state-society relations
* how shifts in regional dynamics can effect changes in the world economy
Through this detailed analysis of regional economic growth and integration since 1945, "Capitalist Restructuring and the Pacific Rim" concludes that the continued accumulation of capital in East and Southeast Asia is undermining the material foundations of US power.
This comprehensive survey of the emergence of Asia's Pacific Rim will intrigue and inform scholars of Asian Studies, Sociology and Development Studies alike.