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This paper examines the conditional effectiveness of foreign aid for economic growth. Theoretically, I argue that to maximize the chance to stay in office, the leaders of a large winning coalition will spend the aid money as intended, to provide public goods, which aids economic growth. On the other hand, leaders of a small winning coalition will spend the money on private goods, which is less effective for growth. To test this argument, I construct a panel data set for 28 Asian countries (1990-2010) and apply the generalized method of moments. I find that the interaction between ODA and coalition size significantly affects economic growth. Broadly, for large winning coalitions, growth rate increases with higher ODA, while for small winning coalitions it decreases with higher ODA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of income inequality on political participation in Asia. Both conventional conflict theory and relative power theory suggest that inequality affects political participation, but they predict opposite directions. In this paper, I argue that the effects of inequality on participation depend on the type of political action: radical or institutional. To substantiate this claim, I analyze four Asian Barometer Survey waves from 2001 to 2014. Using nested models, I find that the effect of income inequality is conditional: it is positively associated with violent activities; has no significant correlation with less radical forms of protest; and is negatively associated with institutional actions, namely voting and persuading others to vote. While the effect does not depend on income level, regime type matters for certain activities. Political capacity, the perception of powerlessness, and trust in government are other potential factors in the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia's middle powers face a trilateral dilemma stemming from their relationships with the U.S. and China. This paper uses the Australian example to examine the dilemma. It shows that Australia has bound itself to the U.S. because of domestic political factors, cost considerations, a belief that it can keep its interests separate, and its perception of regional threats. The paper then argues that others are likely to resolve their trilateral dilemmas in ways that make the regional strategic dynamic more competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of mega-regionalism in the Asia-Pacific has become a significant development for the region itself as well as the global trading system. Europe, in particular, has a great deal at stake in this process. This paper considers the economic costs of EU exclusion from Asia-Pacific economic cooperation initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how the social capital of rice farmers of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, as manifested in the tradition of collective farming practice, has changed. Collective rice farming persisted for decades, irrespective of critical events that challenged its continuation, due to two key factors: the high need for collective farming to ensure subsistence, and the availability of a closely knit social network that facilitated the exchange of labor. Despite its longevity, the practice of collective farming, particularly in terms of labor exchange and mutual aid in farming activities, has not been maintained under current agrarian reforms. Land reform, increased mechanization, and shortened crop cycles leading to labor shortages have all resulted in individualized rice farming, making mobilization for spontaneous collective action at the community level challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how Taiwanese overseas investment creates an ethnic Chinese skilled labor market in Asia. Low costs, no language barrier, and the cultural "lived Taiwan experience" are the benefits. Through three different channels--internal corporate transfer, social networks, and placement agencies--skilled labor from the People's Republic is mobilized to work overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on China's Maritime Silk Road initiative, paying particular attention to Southeast Asia, the initiative's key focus. It examines the political and economic costs and benefits of participation in the initiative for Southeast Asian countries, and identifies the rationales that may enhance or diminish the initiative's success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I propose a historically grounded, regionally framed, and holistically constructed framework and make three interrelated claims about the strengths and vulnerabilities of surviving communist regimes in Asia. First, these regimes' resilience today has historical origins in the communist revolutions that founded not only the regimes but also modern nations and states. This foundation provided these regimes with ideological, symbolic, and organizational assets that are now deployed to continue their dominance. Second, these regimes have been evolving together, have come to each other's assistance at critical times, and have continued special relationships today; therefore, their strengths and vulnerabilities must be examined historically and regionally. Finally, in contrast to much existing scholarship that focuses only on resilience, I argue that factors contributing to their resilience also contain the very seeds of their vulnerabilities. I highlight three such factors, including extensive state control of resources, ruling parties' ability to manipulate ideologies, and their formidable organizations—these three together carry not only their strengths but also their specific vulnerabilities today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China rises, its influence on other states' policy choices will depend partly on the extent of its ''structural power.'' This article examines China's role in Asian monetary affairs and argues that deficient structural power has contributed to a significant gap between China's waxing economic resources and its policy influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways in which Koreans wrote about Vietnam in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From viewing Vietnam as an object of curiosity during the Lê Dynasty or as an inferior tributary state during the Tây Sơn period, Koreans began to talk about Vietnam differently as the nineteenth century progressed. As the French gradually conquered and colonized Vietnam, and as Koreans sensed that their land was in danger of a similar fate, Korean government officials and intellectuals made repeated reference to Vietnam in their writings. Vietnam came to symbolize the fate that Korea faced if the right actions were not taken, and the image of Vietnam was thus conjured up by various peoples as they sought to promote their ideas. In the end, the image of Vietnam came to play an important role in the Korean efforts to find a path through the difficult years of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to disentangle the empirical relationships between Asian values and attitudes toward freedom of expression in Asia. Findings from our multinational survey suggest no obvious relationship between Asian values and support for freedom of expression at the country level. At the individual level, the data suggest a positive relationship between Asian values and support for freedom of expression when Asian values are treated as a single concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of institutional balancing is the predominant factor prompting East Asian countries to move to mega-FTAs. Rather than seeking mega-FTAs purely on the basis of economic benefits, these countries, particularly major powers, have attempted to form mega-FTAs to counter the target state's vision of the regional architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue focuses on the rise of mega-FTAs- which involve efforts to liberalize trade across geographical regions with a multiplicity of countries- in the Asia-Pacific. We examine how the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in this region have faced political resistance as negotiators attempt to address behind-the-border issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article narrates a remarkable endeavor, a venture into the colonial ethnography of borderland mountain societies of today's northern Vietnam, then upland Tonkin, from the unlikely cultural perspective of the military. This venture, commissioned by Governors Generals Paul Doumer and Paul Beau, was conducted a little over a century ago, yielding over four thousand manuscript pages penned by seventy different authors. First, I consider the logic of the militarization of the northern borderlands at the end of the nineteenth century, a strategic policy that triggered the launch of two surveys in 1897 and 1903. I then examine the methods used in the performance of these surveys and, building upon material from the original documents, I comment on the mindset of the officers who performed this task and on the strength of this material for anthropological research today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast aging in Northeast Asia has significant implications for the geopolitics and security dynamics of the region. The long-term impact of graying populations and substantial increases in social security spending might limit the regional arms race. By 2030, Japan, South Korea, and China will become too old for military rivalry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses public perceptions about the idea of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Community in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, focusing on obstacles to the formation of the regional community. Based on public opinion surveys, the authors note obstacles facing regional integration in Southeast Asia such as disparity in education levels, the lack of economic competitiveness of many ASEAN countries, and countries' dependency on aid from developed countries. Other topics include socioeconomic disparity, varying legal and political systems in ASEAN countries, and technological limitations in ASEAN countries.

The article focuses on the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) agreement in 2010 which has established an Asian financial arrangement to aid in solving currency or liquidity crises. It notes the agreement's significant implications on financial cooperation and the broader process of institutionalizing international relations in the Asia-Pacific. It also cites the international politics and institutional features that contribute to the CMIM. Furthermore, it mentions the potential of CMIM and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to work at cross purposes and provide conflicting guidance to borrowing countries.

The article focuses on how globalization affects Asian economies and government expenditure. Two theories are presented on whether globalization has led to reduced political influence and eroded economies, known as the efficiency hypothesis and the compensation hypothesis. The link between globalization and democratization is explored, with a focus on how neoliberal economic and social policies influence public sector spending. Several charts are presented showing Asian economic growth, domestic spending, and trade openness.

In this article the author examines aspects of Russian foreign policy, concentrating on Russian relations with Southeast Asia. In analyzing the greater attempts to impose Russian influence on the region under the direction of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the author examines relations with countries that are members of ASEAN and those that are not. Of particular importance is an examination of the prominence of Southeast Asian countries in Russian determination to become a major actor in the region.

In this article the author examines the elements that led to the Chiang Mai Initiative, a financial agreement among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The author notes that the initiative was a significant demonstration of financial cooperation among the countries of East Asia. The principal focus of the article is a comparison between the successful Chiang Mai Initiative and the failed attempt to form an Asian Monetary Fund that was proposed for the region in 1997.

This study identifies contrasts that exist between majority and minority respondents to a national survey conducted during 1993 in the People's Republic of China. It finds that members of China's minority communities prove less forthcoming when participating in survey interviews in comparison to individuals belonging to the Han majority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to a series of articles on the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis including "A Decade After the Asian Financial Crisis: Regionalism and International Architecture in a Globalized World," "Foreign Portfolio Investors and Financial Sector Stability in Asia," "From Political Reform and Economic Crisis to coup d'etat in Thailand: The Twists and Turns of the Political Economy, 1997-2006," "The Politics of Economic Reform in South Korea: Crony Capitalism after Ten Years," "Malaysia Ten Years After the Asian Financial Crisis," Singapore's Political Economy, 1997-2007: Strategizing Economic Assurance for Globalization," "Taiwan's Developmental State: After the Economic and Political Turmoil," and "The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and the Revival of Populism/Neo-Populism in 21st Century Philippine Politics."

The China-driven rise of Asia to the center of the global political economy since the Asian financial crisis under systems of political economy manifestly different from those of the Washington Consensus poses a challenge that has been met by neither helter-skelter Asian regionalism nor by American strategic inattentiveness of the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A careful review of the Asian crisis in 1997 reveals that despite widespread denunciation, hedge funds and other portfolio investors played only a minor role in the making of the crisis. To maintain financial sector stability, therefore, governments should focus on avoiding inconsistent policies rather than try to identify a "bad" class of investors and limit their activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the unpopularity in Japan of American military unilateralism, Japan has continued to support U.S. actions abroad in order to bolster the bilateral security alliance. Public support in Japan for an active foreign policy reflects realist thinking there about new international threats, as well as changes in domestic politics that shape the public's response to those threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic politics combined with strategic repositioning toward the U.S. set back ties between Japan and South Korea in 2004-05. Despite the North Korean nuclear crisis and the challenge of shifting great power relations in Asia, as well as closer economic and cultural bilateral ties, politicized forces are pulling the two countries apart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicians and parties may devise informal norms of behavior to help assure their political survival following the adoption of a new electoral system. This article focuses on the development and consequences of "Costa Rica" arrangements — an alternation strategy used in Japan's new electoral system for the lower house. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether Confucian Asian values are incompatible with liberal democracy. Analyses of the East Asia Barometer Survey conducted in South Korea reveal that attachment to those values makes it more difficult to reject authoritarian rule than to embrace democracy. These findings suggest that Asian values detract from cultural democratization primarily by keeping the mass public oriented toward the virtues of authoritarian politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asia-Europe Meeting framework was created in 1996, its primary purpose being to fortify relations between the East Asian region and the European Union. Moreover, ASEM partners must not only concern themselves with developing closer interregional ties but also attend to the significant global impact of their partnership, and thus the responsibilities that lie therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]