ABSTRACT
The transformation of Asia between the 1940s and the 1970s had an important relationship to the reorientation of US hegemony in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the same time, as in the rest of the world, the subsequent overall direction of the national trajectories in the region was profoundly affected by the changes in the political economy of the Cold War in this period. In fact, for some observers, the Nixon administration’s dramatic geo-political shifts in the 1970s were of greater significance in Asia than the end of the Cold War in 1989. Nevertheless, the demise of the Soviet Union was also an important turning point in the region-it altered the dynamics of the US-China relationship, while the post-Cold War era also saw increased friction in Washington’s relationship with Tokyo around economic questions and around renewed efforts by Washington to promote neo-liberalism in the region. This latter trend came to a head with the Asian crisis in 1997-1998. The crisis facilitated US efforts to wind back stateguided national development as it had emerged in various forms in Asia. At the same time the Asian financial crisis weakened post-Cold War forms of inclusive regionalism, like the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), in favor of the possible invigoration of exclusive Pan-Asian regionalism long advocated by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad. 1
This chapter focuses on the period from 1975 to the late 1990s, particularly the post-Cold War era, although where required it looks at trends prior to 1975. It begins by looking at Asia in the final decades of the Cold War with a focus on the overall changes in this period. It then turns to the Japanese and Chinese trajectories with an emphasis on the period since 1975. The second part of the chapter turns to an examination of post-Cold War regional trends, particularly inter-state struggles over economic and security issues and the countervailing trend towards the strengthening of established, or the consolidation of new, regional organizations. This is followed by a discussion of the Japanese and Chinese trajectories in the post-Cold War era. These are particularly important nation-states and their present circumstances and future directions have major regional and global implications. The processes of national reorientation and crisis in Japan and China are closely connected to the continued and/or i increased potential for inter-state conflict and to a shift towards new or reconfigured regional economic and political groupings of nation-states in Asia
and elsewhere. The passing, or dramatic weakening, of state-mediated national development, ostensibly grounded in inclusive social goals (the record of which was exceedingly uneven in Asia and elsewhere), has important implications for inter-state conflict.
