ABSTRACT
The first conclusion that comes out clearly from the chapters in this book about the shape and effects of globalization in the Asia-Pacific is that it is very difficult to come to one. This is for two evident reasons. First, the term and nature of globalization continues to be variously understood and so its effects on the AsiaPacific will be variously interpreted simply for that reason. Many of the chapters above have made this point explicitly or implicitly. Second, the Asia-Pacific emerges from this study as a vastly diverse area in which individual countries respond to the phenomenon of globalization in very different ways, and these do not permit easy generalizations. Readers who have worked through the pages of this book in the expectation of finding an answer at the end, may therefore be disappointed – but, arguably, so they should be!
