Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- Introduction: Thinking about Asia, thinking about Australia
- 1 The Idea of ‘Asia’: Australia's ‘Near North’ – East and Southeast Asia
- 2 Tradition and Modernity in East and Southeast Asia: The family
- 3 Tradition and Modernity in East and Southeast Asia: Religion
- 4 Colonialism in East and Southeast Asia: How important was the impact of the West?
- 5 Nationalism and Revolution in East and Southeast Asia
- 6 Nations and Nation-Building in East and Southeast Asia
- 7 International Politics and East and Southeast Asia: The Cold War and the Sino-Soviet Split
- 8 The Rise and Decline of the Japanese Economic ‘Miracle’
- 9 The Newly Industrialising Economies of East and Southeast Asia: Economic growth and economic challenge
- 10 Democracy and Human Rights
- 11 Globalisation and East and Southeast Asia
- 12 Australia and Asia, ‘Asia’ in Australia
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
- References
7 - International Politics and East and Southeast Asia: The Cold War and the Sino-Soviet Split
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- Introduction: Thinking about Asia, thinking about Australia
- 1 The Idea of ‘Asia’: Australia's ‘Near North’ – East and Southeast Asia
- 2 Tradition and Modernity in East and Southeast Asia: The family
- 3 Tradition and Modernity in East and Southeast Asia: Religion
- 4 Colonialism in East and Southeast Asia: How important was the impact of the West?
- 5 Nationalism and Revolution in East and Southeast Asia
- 6 Nations and Nation-Building in East and Southeast Asia
- 7 International Politics and East and Southeast Asia: The Cold War and the Sino-Soviet Split
- 8 The Rise and Decline of the Japanese Economic ‘Miracle’
- 9 The Newly Industrialising Economies of East and Southeast Asia: Economic growth and economic challenge
- 10 Democracy and Human Rights
- 11 Globalisation and East and Southeast Asia
- 12 Australia and Asia, ‘Asia’ in Australia
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
the concept of a region suggests that the societies incorporated within it, while undoubtedly differing in certain significant ways, share some fundamental characteristics that provide them a regional quality. Issues that have affected one society have likewise influenced other societies; there have been shared historical, social, and political experiences. Moreover, increasing economic integration (internal trade and investment flows, convergence of economic systems) supports the suggestion that East and Southeast Asia is a region. Regionalisation of politics, through institutions such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is also premised on an increasing convergence of political interests between the nations of East and Southeast Asia. Finally, the case for characterising East and Southeast Asia as a region is built on its importance to Australia. From the Australian perspective, East and Southeast Asia is ‘its region’. Australia's economic, political and strategic interests are closely and increasingly linked to developments in the region, and Australia has increasingly adopted a regional foreign policy response to developments in East and Southeast Asia (see Chapter 12).
Establishing East and Southeast Asia as a region is thus a necessary, though problematic, starting point for analysis. Without the construct of a region, some other unit of analysis would be required as our primary focus; this might be the nation or sub-national communities. However, these, like the idea of a region, are constructs based on criteria that establish them as objects of observation and analysis.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Understanding Australia's NeighboursAn Introduction to East and Southeast Asia, pp. 115 - 131Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004