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A recent global reconnaissance of Christian higher education found a number of key themes that shaped current developments, such as the pressing challenges of secularization and nationalization but also the advantages of privatization and massification. This article provides an update to this older analysis by taking a birds-eye view of trends within the past 70 years of global Christian higher education. It reveals that privatization and massification trends do not predict new developments in countries and outliers always exist. Furthermore, it highlights some findings missed in previous analyses related to the importance of indigenous Christian groups and Christian general education.

UNESCO's relatively high prestige across East Asia has spurred intensifying efforts by governments to use its imprimatur to legitimate official narratives of the past and visions of the future. This article focuses on China's use of UNESCO as an arena for competitive national 'branding' in the education field, especially relating to STEM and AI. We analyse the Chinese state's engagement with UNESCO's education work in the context of shifts in budgetary and political influence within the organisation, and of a growing 'securitisation' of education within China itself. We show how Chinese engagement with UNESCO's educational agenda reflects both domestic political considerations and the 'major country diplomacy' of Xi Jinping, as manifested in the 'Belt and Road Initiative' and intensifying strategic competition with the USA. We conclude by discussing the implications of rising Chinese influence within the organisation for UNESCO's capacity for articulating a coherent and consistently humanistic vision for education.

This article aims to unpack global-local dynamics in education drawing on the cases of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and ASEAN Citizenship Education in Cambodia. By analysing recent education strategies and policies, curriculum framework, and textbooks, this paper unveils (a) to what extent have ESD and ASEAN citizenship been incorporated in education plans and policies, as well as curriculum and textbooks, (b) what changes are there in the discourses around each norm over time; and (c) how has the ministry appropriated these two norms similarly and differently to fit its agenda. These two cases highlight the fact that nation-(re)building has been, and still is, the key development agenda in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia, and this agenda works as a filter through which transnational norms are interpreted and appropriated. A comparison between the two cases also highlights that the ministry strategically utilises time to achieve their best interests.

Recent calls for the decolonization of the academy demand recognition for diverse canons of knowledge. Asia's economic ascent also imparts rising confidence among Asian scholars and institutions to promote indigenous knowledge. While these global calls for emancipation are invigorating, decolonial scholarship is prone to sterile theorization, historical fixity, and an overt romanticization of the Global South. Drawing on my lived experiences as an Asian academic, I reflect on decolonization and Asian epistemology from five different spaces in my life: (1) Northern Europe, (2) Toronto, (3) Southeast Asia, (4) Kazakhstan and (5) the United Kingdom. I analyze these spaces by using the concepts of intellectual captivity and decolonization from Syed Hussein Alatas and Kuan-Hsing Chen. Specifically, the tendency for decolonization movements to descend into nationalism, nativism, and civilizationalism provides provocative insights on epistemic justice (Chen, 2010). I demonstrate how epistemology as practice can reveal a colonial mindset even among academics who engage in social justice discourse and international work. I also highlight examples of indigenous knowledge that reinforce inequality based on race, gender, sexual orientation and religion. As more individuals with hybrid identities (race, culture, and nationality) enter academe and pursue careers that require international mobility, it is imperative that decolonization moves beyond reductive categories of identity that reproduce stereotypes. I conclude with reflections on the role of comparative and international education research in decolonization movements.

Methodological nationalism (MN) pervades higher education scholarship and practice, particularly in the arena of globalisation of higher education (HE) (Shahjahan and Kezar 2013). MN refers to the assumption that national boundaries define the natural category or unit of analysis for society. Drawing on affect theories, this conceptual article aims to problematise how the 'nation state' as a natural category (or container) pervades global HE practices and policies. Affect refers to emotions, responses, reactions and feelings that are relational and transpersonal, and an object's (e.g., nation-state) continuous emergence and unfolding in a world driven by intensities and feelings. Based on three real-life examples in/about South Asian HE, we demonstrate how the 'nation-state' category comes into being (and becomes 'sticky') through the experienced and imagined encounters among: (a) individuals, (b) national policy and (c) transnational actors. We show how, through imaginaries and practices, the 'global' manifested through using the 'nation-state', indicating a strong and evolving relationship between the two categories, informed by emotional and imaginative futures. We argue that an affect lens illuminates how MN is perpetuated as the nation-state becomes a naturalised container for (potential) encounters in the enactments of HE globalisation and moving beyond MN requires an ontological shift.

The engagement of quality assurance in the recognition process of overseas qualifications became an emerging issue in Asian nations with the increased interest in student mobility in the region in the 21st Century. This study explores the links between quality assurance and qualification recognition, and approaches adopted within national regulatory frameworks in the Asia Pacific region from the perspective of quality assurance agencies. Three major findings are obtained. First, governments are primarily responsible for academic qualification recognition in Asia. Second, professional qualification recognition is heavily restricted by governments due to nationalism and protectionism within the job market. Third, a divergence model between quality assurance and qualification recognition exists in the Asian context.

Emma Willard's map-drawing geographic pedagogy revolutionized early nineteenth-century American education, turning students into participants in the crafting of the new nation. This essay explores the conditions under which map drawing was transported to American missionary schools in South Asia and helped instigate a Tamil nation in British Ceylon. What did the missionaries intend the teaching method to impart? What were the consequences of this pedagogical form on dominant Tamil portrayals of space and identity in Ceylon? To answer these questions and to track the foreign career of American didactic mapmaking, this essay draws on print and manuscript archival materials, including two maps by a Tamil student at the American Ceylon Mission named Robert Breckenridge. The essay argues that the use of map-drawing pedagogy in Ceylon partially transmitted American ways of being in the world, which were consequential for local spatial knowledges and the crafting of a Tamil national identity on the island.

The author examines whether gains of learning of Asian students are the same or different if they are from (a) East Asia, (b) South and Central Asia, or (c) Southeast Asia at undergraduate and graduate levels. Results indicated that East Asian students' gains of learning in personal development, science and development, general education, vocational preparation, and intellectual skills were statistically different from other students from South and Central Asia and Southeast Asia. Graduate Asian students' gains of learning in all domains were found higher than undergraduate Asian students' gains of learning. Based on these findings, the author offers implications and recommendations for educators and practitioners to improve international students' support and their college experience.

A developmental model of children's understanding of nationality (Nationality Perspective-Taking Ability or NPTA) was proposed and evaluated in this study. The NPTA model expands extant definitions and provides a theoretical foundation for the developmental progression of national identity. Children (Mean age = 9.33 years) from Latin American and Asian countries who were sojourners in the U. S. for an average of 20.70 months were administered the NPTA assessment and scored according to the NPTA model. Results indicated children's understanding of nationality was predicted by children's chronological age and by the amount of their cross-national exposure. Additionally, the relative importance of children's identification with their national, racial and linguistic status was explored. A developmental trend revealed that children's identification with nationality increases across age while identification with racial status declines across age.

This article explores language policy in Southeast Asia, focussing on two recent state and other institutional reform efforts and directions: one towards English, and the other towards the mother tongues. However, what needs to be highlighted is the bifurcated nature of language policy reforms in the region. That is, these two policy directions are rarely conceptualized together. In terms of implementation, they are mobilized independently as if they are products of completely different phenomena. A set of broad assumptions upon which policies and policy reforms should be based must be articulated. Educational and social justice, nationalism, and global competitiveness saturate discussion on language policies in the region. With a coherent and inclusive framing of this discussion, language policies should unite -- not divide -- people.

In the last few years, there has been a growing trend of anti-globalism and the rise of nationalism spreading across different parts of the world. Promoting internationalisation of Higher Education has brought with it the globally connected phenomenon with regard to inter-university collaboration and student mobility across national borders but also the locally divided phenomenon when people question the value of international education. Recent elections not only in Europe and the United Kingdom but also in the United States show the rise of popularism and nationalism. Against such a wider sociopolitical context an increasing number of people believe the call for internationalisation of education has indeed favoured the elite and the rich but marginalised the poor. The major objective of this article is to set out the wider policy context for the present special issue with a theme of 'Transnationalisation of Higher Education and Student/Faculty Mobility'. More specifically, this article identifies and discusses key issues confronting the growing tides of transnationalisation and internationalisation of Higher Education, highlighting the major arguments presented by the selected articles in this issue. This article concludes by critically examining the implications of internationalisation/transnationalisation of Higher Education for education policy and university governance.

In spite of the fact that historical issues are challenges of political education, Japanese educational studies have not been able to properly deal with them. One of the reasons is that Japanese educational researchers have accepted without question the presence of nationalistic understanding of history as the most important cause of the difficulties in East Asia, while supporting textbook lawsuits over the last few decades. On this point, it is unreasonable to compare Japan with Germany which is more progressive in terms of overcoming its past, and to conclude that the undemocratic nature of the Japanese culture has bred such a social situation. Austria, which is deemed to be culturally closer to Germany than Japan, has likewise experienced history problems repeatedly since the 1980s. What this suggests is that the degree of progress made in efforts to critically examine history is dependent on the country's international environment rather than on its own culture. This understanding corresponds with a recognition that has gained increasing acceptance over recent years, which is that Japan is not necessarily the sole party at fault in these historical conflicts in East Asia. Needless to say, this does not release the Japanese and Japanese educational research from their special responsibility to deal with these issues. What is demanded of Japanese educational research today is to reveal what sort of axis of conflicts has been formed over the understanding of history in each of the post-war East Asian countries, and how they interact with each other across national borders. By seriously addressing this task, Japanese educational research will be able to construct a new research field that can respond to the expectations of peoples beyond East Asia who either already have faced or may face similar problems in the future. (Contains 9 notes.)

This paper discusses structural and ideological challenges to mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) which has in recent years been gaining ground in many educational contexts around the world. The paper argues, however, that MTB-MLE is set against these challenges - referred to here as inequalities of multilingualism - which prevent MTB-MLE from being implemented successfully. The first section provides a brief background of significant phenomena which have led to the emergence of MTB-MLE as a viable form of education around the world. The second section describes some features of inequalities of multilingualism by situating the paper within sociolinguistic and sociopolitical contexts in Asia, especially Southeast Asia, to be followed further in the third section with a more targeted discussion of such inequalities using a recent case of linguistic discrimination in the Philippines as an example. The paper highlights the continuing vulnerabilities of mother tongues in education even if official discourse and policy seem to work for them.

The English language is significant to the internationalisation of higher education worldwide. Countries in Asia are proactive in appropriating English for their national interests, while paying attention to associated national cultural identity issues. This article examines the ways in which the role of English is interpreted and justified in different countries in Asia, with a particular focus on Japan, as these nations attempt to internationalise their higher education within the broader processes of regionalisation and globalisation and their own nationalist discourse. Through critical analyses and discussions of Japan's two major government initiatives, the Action Plan 2003 to "Cultivate Japanese with English Abilities" and the "Global 30" Project 2008, the article investigates how cultural national identities are shaped, are altered and are put "at risk" in policies and practices for the internationalisation of higher education and the overemphasis on English. It argues for the importance of understanding the intersections of English language policy, the internationalisation of higher education and national cultural identity and also considers how the over-promotion of English in the case of Japan has been energetically driven by the nation building agenda that tends to undermine local languages and what this might mean for internationalisation.

Identity in south Asia was anchored by, on the one end, community, and on the other, an appreciation of sub-continental (geographical and cultural) space. People, historically, drew their identity as part of communities, which in turn existed in continuity to each-other in the seamless regional expanse of south Asia. Imagination as nationals--a post-colonial construct--faced contestations, both, from community affiliations and spatial imagination contrary to the territorial--modular form of nation-state. As a response, the state fabricated the idea of "patriotic-citizen" and used nationalist historiography to create citizens who are taught to believe the nation as prime-marker of self-definition and act like soldiers, guarding national identity against alternative imaginations. Education has become the most potent devise through which this is achieved. The article, on the basis of textbook narratives in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, would demonstrate (i) how educational practices build a militarist idea of citizenship and, (ii) in doing so co-opts the demands of community by showing the nation as vindication of community-aspirations and on the other hand erasing conceptualisation of a south Asian space from cognitive maps of its subjects. The idea of "active" citizenship understands "active" as responsible citizenship, emphasising a right based discourse. On the contrary education in south Asia is used to "activate" citizenship which is relational in content--based on ideas of "us" versus "them"--instead of allowing critical understanding of rights and identities.

This essay seeks to explore the representation of Asia in Jose Joaquin Fernandez de Lizardi's "El Periquillo Sarniento" (1816), which is often considered the first novel produced in Latin America. Although many scholars have examined the picaresque element as well as the nationalist aspect of the novel, the Asian presence in Fernandez de Lizardi's narrative has not received the attention that it deserves. My analysis focuses on the main character's voyage to the Philippines and the fictional Pacific island of Saucheofu, two places through which the author envisions an alternative model of society for colonial Mexico. The Philippines represents an ideal space in two ways: first, the protagonist begins the process of becoming an upright individual in Manila; and second, the discourse of antislavery can be articulated in an Asian country while it is prohibited in Mexico. Furthermore, Saucheofu symbolizes the idea of "utopia" to some extent, because of its exemplary system of productivity and the highly controlled mechanism of law and punishment. By studying the importance of these countries in the Far East, I propose a reading of "El Periquillo Sarniento" as the first transpacific novel in Latin American literature. (Contains 7 notes.)

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Kazakhs did not make up the majority of the population in their own titular state. Since then, Kazakhs have become the majority ethnic group and the government revised the education system to reflect this demographic change. Education is an important tool for shaping national identity in a multiethnic state, especially one undergoing demographic shifts. This article is a snapshot of how the demographic change in Kazakhstan has affected education and in turn how this is shaping national identity on young generations. This transformation is important to monitor and understand as Kazakhstan continues to develop and become an important security partner and increasingly vital source of energy supplies for Asia and Europe.

A unit on China's ethnicities provides students rich opportunities to explore multiple themes in the social studies while helping them to develop a deeper understanding of recent events in western China. Studying China's ethnic minorities encompasses such topics as stereotyping, cultural diversity, the creation of ethnic identities, and key historical and geographic concepts. The rise to dominance of Han Chinese culture within East Asia, the nature of Han/non-Han relations, the emergence of nation-states and nationalism, and the development of ethnic and political identities are major threads in world history. Finally, a study of the modern period presents students with opportunities to examine questions of power, authority, governance, human and civil rights, and international relations. Regardless of which thematic vehicle students use, they should be able to demonstrate an understanding of these key points: (1) Definitions of diversity vary among cultures and change over time; (2) Ethnic identities are not immutable; they result from a variety of forces--self, group, other groups and the state--and are negotiated or evolve over time; (3) The development of the majority Han Chinese identity and its relationship with minority groups has a complex history; (4) The emergence of nationalism is a relatively new development in world history; (5) The roots of the current issues in Tibet and Xinjiang go back to the expansion of the Qing Empire, the emergence of European-style nationalism, and the conflict between "empire" and "nation-state" that began with European expansion; (6) The designation, "nationalities" ("minzu") in China is the result of influence from Soviet social science; and (7) Modern concepts of civil and human rights are understood differently in different settings, both by those engaged in struggles for them and by those accused of repressing them. Helping students to develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the events in western China is not the only reason for spending class time investigating minorities in China. Through a rigorous examination of the Chinese case, students also develop a better understanding of the complexities of ethnic and political identities, questions of sovereignty, and civil and human rights globally, while they develop and hone their skills in critical analysis, persuasion, reading, writing, and action. (Contains 5 notes and 7 online resources.)

Research on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has hitherto attracted scholarly attention and debate by both regional and international scholars working in area studies, such as international relations and Asia-Pacific/Southeast Asia studies. Confined to area studies, scholarly research on ASEAN is limiting because the parameters of research are invariably locked into issues related to economics, politics, security, and trade development in and around the region. Notably, education has been an under-researched topic. On the cusp of its 40th anniversary ASEAN envisages the formation of an ASEAN identity and socio-cultural community. As a point of departure from area studies, this paper engages in "regionalist thinking" about ASEAN, education and identity making. This "regionalist thinking" is, however, only thinkable and imaginable with reference to the "global," because as a region ASEAN, whether perceived in geographical or in spatial terms, is part of the global sphere in which it is embedded. I argue in this paper that while historically education and schooling are directly related to the imaginaries of nation building and national identity making, the call for the creation of an ASEAN identity and the formation of a socio-cultural community requires that nation states in the region deparochialize education and redesign pedagogies that "teach and learn beyond the nation." (Contains 3 notes.)

Economic globalisation is the defining characteristic of our age and a process which is transforming the parameters of the national state and global power relations. However, it is also a contradictory, uneven and unpredictable phenomenon. East Asia has been at the epicenter of globalisation for the past 30 years and will continue to be so with the rise of China's economy. The region has been one of the main beneficiaries of the globalisation process, with exceptional geo-political advantages producing terms of engagement with the global economy not matched by other developing regions. However, its relations have also been paradoxical. At a time when globalisation theory predicted the demise of the national economy and the waning of national identity, East Asian growth was driven, above all, by the developmental state, with strong and interventionist Governments often successfully supporting "national" neo-merchantilist economic policies and strong state identities. Some argue that the developmental state has now run its historical course, made redundant by its own success in the global market. This article examines the evidence for the changing nature of the state in the global economy and asks what are the likely future forms of the state in East Asia. (Contains 3 notes.)

The strength of nationalism in East Asia has in recent years attracted a great deal of attention, both among the scholarly community and in the media. However, with the notable exception of Japan, little attention has been devoted to the subject of history education. As a result, the ways in which history education across the region both influences and is influenced by the politics of nationalism and identity is poorly understood. The purpose of this special issue is to begin to address this gap in the literature, and this introductory chapter briefly surveys the historical and ideological context within which debates over history education have taken place, highlighting some of the similarities and differences between European and Asian experience in this field. It concludes with a summary of the themes and issues covered by the remaining chapters in this issue

Surveys the existing treatment of Asia in upper elementary and secondary social studies textbooks. Treats improvements needed in such areas as: (1) global issues important to Asia, (2) content and approach, (3) economics and politics, (4) geography and resources, (5) international relations, and (6) treatment of subregions. Provides a comprehensive list of Asian Study Centers and instructional materials. (JDH)

This paper reports findings of a qualitative study that explored international students' identity negotiation during their cross-border studies against the backdrop of the internationalisation of higher education in Asia. Through a comparative narrative-based case study of two Burmese international students' experiences during their studies in a Hong Kong university, the paper reveals both similarities and differences in their negotiation of (i) identities as 'non-local'/'international' students in the university context and (ii) national identities in relation to the local community and the imagined global/international community. In particular, the findings illustrate the divergent ways in which the two international students negotiate the meanings they attach to the 'non-local' student label, respond to local students' (mis)recognition of their national identities, and perceive the (in)compatibility between their national and global identities. Overall, the findings point to the diversity and heterogeneity in international students' experiences which appear to be variably shaped by differential dispositions and capacities in exercising strategic agency for identity (re)construction. The case study also calls for the need to problematise the reification and over-simplification of the so-called 'international student experience' and argues for the importance of paying attention to the complexity of international students' identity negotiation in the context of international education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As both a geographical and civilizational category, Asia is and remains a European creation. Its questioning is therefore part of the anti-colonial project in both India and China, where it is part of the sometimes fitful and contradictory way in which imperialism has been simultaneously inherited and repudiated. The economic and political emergence of both countries as global powers has made this inheritance relevant again, this time as a focus of identification, and their futures are bound up with how these states deal with the idea and reality of empire as their nationalisms begin to fragment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article theorizes the colonial problem of peoplehood that Indian anticolonial thinkers grappled with in their attempts to conceptualize self-rule, or swaraj. British colonial rule drew its legitimacy from a developmentalist conception of the colonized people as backward and disunited. The discourse of "underdeveloped" colonial peoplehood rendered the Indian people "unfit" for self-government, suspending their sovereignty to an indefinite future. The concept of swaraj would be born with the rejection of deferred colonial self-government. Yet the persistence of the developmentalist figuration of the people generated a crisis of sovereign authorization. The pre-Gandhian swaraj theorists would be faced with the not-yet claimable figure of the people at the very moment of disavowing the British claim to rule. Recovering this underappreciated pre-Gandhian history of the concept of swaraj and reinterpreting its Gandhian moment, this article offers a new reading of Gandhi's theory of moral self-rule. In so doing, it demonstrates how the history of swaraj helps trace the colonial career of popular sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia's security environment is changing rapidly. Over the past five years or so, the security order has become increasingly unsettled as it is buffeted by a complex array of forces. The region is entering a period of growing rivalry and animosity states are uncertain over the strategic intentions of great and rising powers, nationalism is an increasingly pervasive force, and military spending has been ramping up in many countries over the past decade. That the security environment is changing is unarguable. But what is the extent of these changes? And what are the implications of these shifts for regional states? This paper introduces the special issue "East Asia's Contested Security Order". It begins by discussing the broad contours of the changing East Asian security order and what is at stake for regional powers. It then introduces the seven articles in this edition that challenge existing conceptualisations of the East Asian security order, articulate diverse perspectives on that order held by regional, middle and smaller powers, examine their complex and different security strategies that contribute to shaping the regional order, and consider the extent to which the regional security order may be said to be "contested". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to reconstruct widely accepted concepts of the top-down authoritarian nature of Central Asian politics in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan through a comparative study of the pro-democratic movements that emerged in the late 1980s. By analysing data from interviews with the cultural elites of the late Soviet perestroika period and data on the indigenous nationalist movements such as Erk, Zheltoksan, Birlik and others, we question why such nationalist movements did not “survive” or emerge as a significant political platform as promised in post-independence Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and why they failed to change the political outlook of one party rule or the dominance of one nationalising regime. Furthermore, we analyse how such nationalist movements had an opportunity to turn into semi-democratic movements but failed to transform after their agenda (arguably, independence) was achieved, leaving “communists-turned-nationalists” to continue their policies in newly formed countries. Thus, the paper also looks at how these cultural elites eventually contributed to the local “authoritarianism” and lack of plurality in views and identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rise has been accompanied by a rise in nationalism. But what are the characteristics of this nationalism now being witnessed? Does it support China's constructive engagement with the international order, or does it seek to assert China's supremacy? These questions lie at the hub of a rapidly expanding secondary literature on the emergence of nationalism in China and its impact on China's foreign relations. What is, however, absent from the academic discourse is the voice of the Chinese people themselves. What are their perceptions of the nation-state, and how do these beliefs shape their views of China's relationship with East Asia? To address this gap, we conducted a series of large-scale surveys in Beijing between 2011 and 2013 on the twinned topics of domestic nationalism and international relations. Our findings, as reported below, represent an initial attempt to answer this final and, arguably, most critical set of questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay proposes that the study of Asia, thought of as an Inter-Asian space, can provide concepts that shed light on the social shapes of societies that are mobile, spatially expansive, and interactive with one other. Inter-Asia, an old world crisscrossed by interactions between parts that have known and recognized one another for centuries, provides an unmatched depth and breadth of mobile experience and material. Such material can be recognized if seen through concepts designed to bring out the shapes of mobile societies, and to analyze their dynamics. These concepts includemobility, disaggregation-reaggregation, connection, circulation, partial societies, transregional axis/intermediate scale, and outside-in analysis. They are offered in the spirit of philosophical housekeeping, to clarify and crystalize what is innovative about recent Asian studies that move beyond globalization, and to further those efforts.They areways out of the box of classical social theory’s internalist, constitutionalist paradigms that hamper the Inter-Asia venture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vietnam's history has witnessed the nation’s constant effort to learn from the outside world. This effort paradoxically co-exists with the country’s aspiration to escape from foreign domination, to protect national independence and to preserve national identity. Discussions of foreign influences in the Vietnamese education system should be situated within the overall political and historical condition of Vietnam, which has been characterised by the influence of successive external forces and foreign countries. There have been a lot of debates and discussions about the nature, benefits and tensions associated with Vietnam’s efforts to open to the world and learn from other countries while combining with and maintaining its traditional practices and values in the course of education reform over the nation’s different historical and political periods. However, hybridity in higher education as a notable phenomenon related to the interactions between Vietnamese traditions and foreign influences has not been adequately explored in empirical research. The study reported in this paper responds to this paucity in the literature. It analyses the dynamic and complex dimensions of hybridity across two Vietnamese universities. The empirical data show that hybridity is accompanied with some positive changes and reforms in teaching, learning and university governance. However, hybridity happens in largely ad hoc, fragmented and inconsistent manners across different areas of university operations. The research also indicates that the dominant force behind hybridity in the Vietnamese HE system is staff and leaders being educated overseas and exposed to foreign practices and values. It, however, shows the tensions arising from the interactions of the Western, traditional and Communist Party principles during the hybridisation process. The paper concludes by offering some implications for the development of a strategic plan and approaches to deal with potential conflicts between external influences and traditional values and assist staff with the development of their capacity to optimise the potential benefits of hybridity to enrich teaching, learning, governance and university operation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Extant major approaches to states and revolutions privilege the role of state practices and the character of war-making in shaping modern state-making in the Third World. Bringing the role of ideology into this analytical landscape of state-making, this paper advances an alternative claim that ideological practices shape modern state structures and practices as well as the dynamics of political contention between the state and the revolutions. First, I argue that that intra-movement ideological dynamics within the nationalist movement can have a profound impact on the structure and practices of the state. Using the writings of the party leaders, memoirs and official publications of the Burmese communist party, I maintain that subtle and specific ideological differences amongst the Burmese leftist movements generated organizational splits and internecine conflicts in the nationalist struggle, which exerted profound influences on the structures and practices of the Burmese state Secondly, relative ideological positions of the state and the revolutionary movements play an important role in shaping the dynamics of contention between the state and revolution. For example, an intimate web of ideological affinity between the nascent Burmese state and the Burmese leftist movements shaped the context and content of political contention between the state and these movements in the post-colonial Burma. To address these issues empirically, the first part of the paper examines the formation and cementation of organizational linkages amongst Burmese leftist nationalists during the anti-colonial struggle. The second part of the paper addresses specific and subtle ways in which ideological character and practices of the Burmese state and the Burmese Communist party shaped state practices and state structures in modern Burma as well as the dynamics of political contention between the state and the revolutionary movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 60 years maintaining Self-Defense Forces rather than a normal military, Japan is moving towards exercising collective self-defence, long restricted by interpretations of its 1945 Peace Constitution. The merits of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo's 'proactive pacifism' are intensely debated by those welcoming greater international contributions from Japan and others suspicious of Japanese 'remilitarisation'. A nation's defence posture can theoretically be hijacked by aggressive nationalists, shift to pacifist isolationism, or rely on non-military internationalism or multilateral security cooperation. This article assesses competing explanations about the post-war trajectory of Japan's defence posture by charting variation in military doctrine and capabilities. The analysis finds that Tokyo has made incremental policy adjustments under domestic and international constraints, and is not aggressively remilitarising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines the nationalistic uses to which UNESCO’s 2003 Convention on intangible heritage is put in Western Asia by looking at the conflicts it initiated amongst the countries in the region over the ownership of shared culinary traditions. I first detail the conflict that has arisen between Armenia and Turkey over the ownership ofkeşkekdish after its inscription in the Convention’s Representative List on behalf of Turkey in 2011. Then I discuss the ownership conflicts overtolmadish andlavashbread that ensued in the region following the listing ofkeşkek. Examined together, these cases demonstrate that while the Convention strongly influences the current processes of heritagization of food in Western Asia, these processes do not primarily serve the Convention’s purposes of safeguarding intangible heritage and ensuring mutual appreciation of it. The Convention rather functions as a source of nationalism in the region to identify and legitimate transnational food traditions as national heritage and to prevent other countries from laying claims over them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the proposed revival of Bandung Conference, the first significant gathering of leaders of Asian and African states, in the twenty-first century which is noted to necessitate the appreciation of the world nowadays compared to its conditions 60 years ago. It explores the context of renewed solidarities between nations, Cold War paranoia and nationalism.

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An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses various papers published within the issue, including one on Chinese investments in the energy and mineral industries of Southeast Asia, one on the role of nationalism in the suspension of the Myitsone dam in Myanmar, and another on Chinese farm enterprises in Tajikistan.

This study attempted to reexamine the traditional East/ethnic-West/civic framework of national identity by extending the analysis to selected Asian countries. The previous literature has been Western oriented because the comparison and analysis focused on Western Europe and the United States of America (USA) as depicting West/civic societies and Eastern Europe as East/ethnic societies. There is a need to expand the analysis by including Asian countries. Utilizing the 2005-2007 rounds of the World Values Survey, the results of the data analysis support the ethnic-civic dichotomy. On average, respondents from Asian countries (China, Taiwan and South Korea) accorded more weight to the ethnic dimension of national identity and less to the civic, while those from Western countries (USA, Norway and Sweden) attached more importance to the civic dimension than the ethnic. Furthermore, both ethnic and civic identities were largely irrelevant in explaining attitudes toward immigrants in Asian countries but were strongly associated with immigration attitudes in Western countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the paradoxes of digital media as place-making practices in the lived and mediated experiences of relatively silent or invisible groups of migrants - educated and highly mobile generations of Korean, Japanese and Chinese women in London. One of the striking features in the transformational nature of international migration today is the salience of provisionality and the nomadic symptom ('willing to go anywhere for a while'), as evident among the East Asian women in this study. Underlying the processes of circulatory migration flows, modes of social organization and transnational experiences are the accelerated globalization of digital media, Internet and its time-space compressing capacity. As this study will argue, today's circulatory migration and provisional diaspora is significantly enabled, and driven in part, by the strategic and mundane use of mediated cultural spaces, through which movements are not necessarily limited but are likely to increase in their impact, and further sustained in various transnational contexts, albeit with unintended consequences. The electronic mediation of Internet plays a significant role not just in facilitating the ongoing physical mobility and possibly maintaining its long-term durability, but also crucially in constituting and changing the way in which diasporic lives and subject positions are experienced and felt in otherwise a sense of placeless-ness. New spaces, connections and various capacities of mobility are now changing not only the scale and patterns of migration but also the nature of migrant experience and thinking, and therefore the complex conditions of identity formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]