The Asia-Pacific Region

IGCC has since its inception recognized the importance and relevance of the Asia-Pacific region to emerging global geopolitics. More than a decade ago, Miles Kahler and colleagues considered "Issues Beyond the Cold War in the Pacific." By 1993, Susan Shirk had launched unique, meaningful unofficial discussion among China, Japan, Russia, the United States, and both South and North Korea, in the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) to enhance mutual understanding, confidence, and cooperation while reducing mistrust within the region. An innovative project in its day, Wired For Peace: Virtual Diplomacy in Northeast Asia, used computer networks to sustain this communication, share information, and offered a timely mechanism for collaborative analysis among NEACD participants.

In 1997, IGCC launched "China and its Provinces: The Impact of China's Opening on its Economic and Political Integration" to assess how China's opening to foreign trade and overseas investment effected national integration and central control in China. More recent work examines international environmental commitments and extends into the realm of economic and security issues. The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is an ambitious first effort to build a regional, multilateral institution that pulls together the nations of the Asia Pacific. The APEC International Assessment Network enhance knowledge among government officials and the general public in order improve APEC performance.

The Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue

Past projects on the Asia-Pacific Region

China and its Provinces

In 2001, Prof. Barry Naughton (UCSD) and Prof. Dali Yang of the University of Chicago briefed representatives from the NSC, Congressional staff, the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense, and Agriculture, the CIA, and a number of universities and think tanks on the progress of the the research study "China and its Provinces: The Impact of China's Opening on its Economic and Political Integration," a project begun in 1997. The event was hosted by the IGCC Washington, D.C., office. Prof. Naughton is building a province-by-province database to help assess the degree to which China's opening to foreign trade and overseas investment has frayed, strengthened, or altered national integration and central control in China. Parallel work in the project is examining China's international environmental commitments and the implications of changing center-provincial relations.

IGCC's work extends to the political economy of the Asia-Pacific. IGCC and the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE) teamed up to examine how U.S., Chinese, and Japanese production networks compete and cooperate in the region. In 1998, IGCC's then-director Prof. Stephan Haggard testified before Congress on the financial crisis in Asia.

The Asian Financial Crisis

The Asian financial crisis, which began in July 1997 with the flotation of the Thai baht, proved to be a seminal event in the postwar economic history of the Asia-Pacific. The crisis, with its pronounced regional character, not only raises important issues for domestic economic policy, but also for questions of international economic integration and the international management of crises.

The Future of Regional Multilateralism in Pacific Asia

Looking forward to the future of the broader Asia Pacific region, a project launched by IGCC research director Stephan Haggard and UC San Diego Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) professors Ellis Krauss, Andrew MacIntyre, and Miles Kahler produced a volume examining the two-way interactions between multilateralism and major Pacific countries' politics and policymaking. Thematic articles that deal with cross-national issues of multilateralism in Pacific Asia will supplement empirical case studies. Co-sponsors included IGCC, IR/PS, and the Graduate School of International Studies at Yonsei University, Korea.

The Future of United States–India Relations

In collaboration with the Center for Global Security Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, IGCC hosted a two-day workshop in 2001 to forecast how Indo-American relations may develop over the next ten to twenty years, what role each country has in developing those relations, and how security and economic factors affect such developments. The short, focused meeting explored how the two countries might improve their ties, especially in light of increased tensions over nuclear tests. Indian officials and strategists responsible for drafting India's new nuclear doctrine were invited to interact in their personal, unofficial capacities with U.S. officials and South Asia area experts. The meeting, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, produced practical thinking about the future of Indo-American relations.

Wired for Peace

Building the APEC International Assessment Network (APIAN)

Selected Publications on the Asia-Pacific Region

Number: Policy Paper 51
Title: Security Multilateralism in Asia: Views from the United States and Japan
Author(s): Ralph Cossa, Akiko Fukushima, Daniel Pinkston
Published by: IGCC
Pages: 48
Year of Publication: 1999

Title: Strategic Views from the Second Tier:The Nuclear Weapons Policies of France, Britain, and China
Author(s): John C. Hopkins, Weixing Hu
ISBN: 1-56000-790-7
Published by: Transaction Publishers
Year of Publication: 1995

Title: The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions
Author(s): Stephan Haggard, Robert R. Kaufman
ISBN: 0-691-02974-1
Published by: Princeton University Press
Year of Publication: 1995

Title: The War Within: America's Battle Over Vietnam
Author(s): Tom Wells
ISBN: 0-8050-4491-4
Published by: Henry Holt Publishers
Year of Publication: 1994

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