ABSTRACT
It still remains to be seen whether the 'Pacific Era' has at last begun to unfold, 100 years after President Roosevelt proclaimed its dawn. But one important difference between his time and the eve of the twenty-first century is that the Asian countries have long since ceased to be pawns of the major external powers and have increasingly become masters of their own destinies. Accordingl~ it is more appropriate to describe the region as the Asia-Pacific.
