ABSTRACT
The integration of Asian countries into the world economy has been primarily accomplished through exploitation of raw materials and their processing, and through low-skill, low-wage assembly of components of automotive and electronic goods. The nations of the global south include those countries in Central America, South America, Mexico, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Central to an analysis of the economies of this region is the activities of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The countries and the principal cities of East Asia are the most prominent exception to this picture of the global south. One can think of some of the cities of East Asia as butterflies, each emerging from its chrysalis, resting a bit, and then taking flight. The primary agent in the transformation that has taken place, and that will continue to take place, in East Asia is participation in global production chains and in the international trade that this promotes and facilitates.
