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International Relations of Asia

Third Edition

Edited by David Shambaugh

A 2023 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title

This is the most up-to-date and comprehensive volume on the international relations of Asia and the Indo-Pacific. The Asian region has become the fulcrum of international relations globally—it is the most economically vibrant, geostrategically significant, socially and culturally diverse, and militarily dangerous region in the world. The world’s leading great powers—the United States and China—jockey for primacy and vie for influence throughout the region, while “middle powers”—India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea—are extending their regional reach. The ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is collectively important in its own right, but has also become the epicenter of US-China regional competition. While Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands largely operate in their own orbits, Australia has assumed growing regional impact. North Korea and Taiwan are both significant actors but they are also each tinderboxes of potential conflict. While the region is geographically sprawling across the Indo-Pacific, it is tied together economically, technologically, and strategically. No one working in or on Asia cannot afford to read this volume.

  • Details
  • Details
  • Author
  • Author
  • TOC
  • TOC
  • Reviews
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Features
  • Awards
  • Awards
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 514 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9
978-1-5381-6284-2 • Hardback • May 2022 • $137.00 • (£105.00)
978-1-5381-6285-9 • Paperback • May 2022 • $52.00 • (£40.00)
978-1-5381-6286-6 • eBook • May 2022 • $49.00 • (£38.00)
Series: Asia in World Politics
Subjects: Political Science / World / Asian, Political Science / International Relations / General, Social Science / Regional Studies

David Shambaugh is the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science, and International Affairs and Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.

Map of Asia

List of Figures and Tables

List of Acronyms

Preface to the Third Edition

Part I: Introduction

1 International Relations in Asia: Grappling with Complexities

David Shambaugh

Part II: Legacies and Theories

2 The Evolving Asian System: Three Transformations

Samuel S. Kim

3 Thinking Theoretically About Asian IR

Amitav Acharya

Part III: The Roles of Regional Powers

4 America’s Role in Asia: Challenged Leadership

Robert Sutter

5 China’s Role in Asia: Attractive or Aggressive?

Phillip C. Saunders

6 Japan’s Role in Asia: From Free Rider to Thought Leader

Michael J. Green

7 India’s Role in Asia: A Regional Power with Global Ambitions

T. V. Paul

Part IV: Subregional Actors

8 Southeast Asian States and ASEAN: A Center of Courtships and Cooperation

Cheng-Chwee Kuik

9 South Korea: An Ambivalent Middle Power

Scott Snyder

10 North Korea: Continuity without Change

Victor Cha and Ellen Kim

11 Taiwan: Foreign Relations without Formal Recognition

Shelley Rigger

12 Australasia: Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands

Robert Ayson and Rory Medcalf

Part V: Transregional Linkages and Dynamics

13 The Asian Regional Economy

Edward J. Lincoln

14 The Asian Regional Security Environment

Bates Gill

15 Ethnicity, Religion, Gender, and Human Rights in Asian IR

Rollie Lal

Part VI: Looking to the Future

16 Asian IR in the 2020s: Factors for the Future

David Shambaugh

Index 441

About the Editor and Contributors

Shambaugh revised and updated his popular edited collection on Asian international relations, which has served as an excellent student reference for many years. His masterful opus offers a nuanced approach to understanding the regional competition that forces many of Asia’s neighboring nations—China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and even Pakistan—to find ways to coexist peacefully. He identifies five particular variables, whose consequences most merit attention: China’s increasingly assertive “wolf warrior” diplomacy; the US-China power rivalry; the emergence of regional multilateralism; a dangerously nuclear Korean peninsula; and, most worrisome, Taiwan—a ticking time bomb…. Shambaugh wisely suggests changing the approach to Asian international relations from a country-by-country area studies strategy to a holistic analysis of the Indo-Pacific as a whole. Essential. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.


— Choice Reviews


David Shambaugh’s third edition of his influential The International Relations of Asia offers a way to think comprehensively about the complex web of diplomatic, economic, and security relations in this century of Asia. Cutting through that complexity to explain the international relations of the world’s largest and most dynamic region is no mean feat. Offering not only clear and integrated analysis, but also a diversity of perspectives, it will prove valuable to students of Asia for years to come.


— Hon. Kevin Rudd, 26th Prime Minister of Australia and Global President of the Asia Society


An astute, impressive, masterful capture of the complex geopolitical dynamic that defines Asia today, this is a study distinguished by the in-depth, compelling analysis of seasoned strategic experts. The Indo-Pacific today is the cockpit of intensifying major power rivalry, competing nationalisms and growing militarization—all of which suggest a growing uncertainty about the future of the region. These and a variety of other issues that affect the region, including the key challenge of counterbalancing China, are examined thoroughly and incisively in this study which should benefit university students and policy planners alike.


— Nirupama Rao, former Foreign Secretary of India and Ambassador of India to China and the United States


Want to know where the Asia region is headed? This comprehensive and well-written volume provides a clear picture of its political, economic, and social dynamics by the top scholars in the field. It has justly become the most widely used textbook for Asian international relations courses.


— Susan Shirk, University of California, San Diego; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs


Asia is becoming an ever more central player in global affairs. This volume, under a master editor's touch, captures the complexity of changing relationships, and the region's enormous potential.


— Kent Calder, Director, Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins University SAIS


  • Comprehensive in scope and coverage, and well-conceptualized.
  • Completely updated (through 2021).
  • The contributors are among the world’s leading scholars and experts on the region.
  • A “one stop shop” on the international relations of Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
  • THE best university textbook (worldwide) on the subject.
  • Thoroughly researched and in-depth.
  • Clearly written and free from jargon.
  • Easy to understand graphics.



1/19/23, Choice: This book was commended as an “Editors’ Pick” for January 2023.

Link: https://www.choice360.org/choice-pick/forthcoming-titles-in-art-architecture-2023/



1/31/23, Choice: This book was included in a roundup of top community college titles.

Link: https://www.choice360.org/choice-pick/the-top-75-community-college-titles-january-2023-edition/



• Winner, Outstanding Academic Title (Choice Reviews, 2023)

International Relations of Asia

Third Edition

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • A 2023 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title

    This is the most up-to-date and comprehensive volume on the international relations of Asia and the Indo-Pacific. The Asian region has become the fulcrum of international relations globally—it is the most economically vibrant, geostrategically significant, socially and culturally diverse, and militarily dangerous region in the world. The world’s leading great powers—the United States and China—jockey for primacy and vie for influence throughout the region, while “middle powers”—India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea—are extending their regional reach. The ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is collectively important in its own right, but has also become the epicenter of US-China regional competition. While Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands largely operate in their own orbits, Australia has assumed growing regional impact. North Korea and Taiwan are both significant actors but they are also each tinderboxes of potential conflict. While the region is geographically sprawling across the Indo-Pacific, it is tied together economically, technologically, and strategically. No one working in or on Asia cannot afford to read this volume.

Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
    Pages: 514 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9
    978-1-5381-6284-2 • Hardback • May 2022 • $137.00 • (£105.00)
    978-1-5381-6285-9 • Paperback • May 2022 • $52.00 • (£40.00)
    978-1-5381-6286-6 • eBook • May 2022 • $49.00 • (£38.00)
    Series: Asia in World Politics
    Subjects: Political Science / World / Asian, Political Science / International Relations / General, Social Science / Regional Studies
Author
Author
  • David Shambaugh is the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science, and International Affairs and Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Map of Asia

    List of Figures and Tables

    List of Acronyms

    Preface to the Third Edition

    Part I: Introduction

    1 International Relations in Asia: Grappling with Complexities

    David Shambaugh

    Part II: Legacies and Theories

    2 The Evolving Asian System: Three Transformations

    Samuel S. Kim

    3 Thinking Theoretically About Asian IR

    Amitav Acharya

    Part III: The Roles of Regional Powers

    4 America’s Role in Asia: Challenged Leadership

    Robert Sutter

    5 China’s Role in Asia: Attractive or Aggressive?

    Phillip C. Saunders

    6 Japan’s Role in Asia: From Free Rider to Thought Leader

    Michael J. Green

    7 India’s Role in Asia: A Regional Power with Global Ambitions

    T. V. Paul

    Part IV: Subregional Actors

    8 Southeast Asian States and ASEAN: A Center of Courtships and Cooperation

    Cheng-Chwee Kuik

    9 South Korea: An Ambivalent Middle Power

    Scott Snyder

    10 North Korea: Continuity without Change

    Victor Cha and Ellen Kim

    11 Taiwan: Foreign Relations without Formal Recognition

    Shelley Rigger

    12 Australasia: Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands

    Robert Ayson and Rory Medcalf

    Part V: Transregional Linkages and Dynamics

    13 The Asian Regional Economy

    Edward J. Lincoln

    14 The Asian Regional Security Environment

    Bates Gill

    15 Ethnicity, Religion, Gender, and Human Rights in Asian IR

    Rollie Lal

    Part VI: Looking to the Future

    16 Asian IR in the 2020s: Factors for the Future

    David Shambaugh

    Index 441

    About the Editor and Contributors

Reviews
Reviews
  • Shambaugh revised and updated his popular edited collection on Asian international relations, which has served as an excellent student reference for many years. His masterful opus offers a nuanced approach to understanding the regional competition that forces many of Asia’s neighboring nations—China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and even Pakistan—to find ways to coexist peacefully. He identifies five particular variables, whose consequences most merit attention: China’s increasingly assertive “wolf warrior” diplomacy; the US-China power rivalry; the emergence of regional multilateralism; a dangerously nuclear Korean peninsula; and, most worrisome, Taiwan—a ticking time bomb…. Shambaugh wisely suggests changing the approach to Asian international relations from a country-by-country area studies strategy to a holistic analysis of the Indo-Pacific as a whole. Essential. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.


    — Choice Reviews


    David Shambaugh’s third edition of his influential The International Relations of Asia offers a way to think comprehensively about the complex web of diplomatic, economic, and security relations in this century of Asia. Cutting through that complexity to explain the international relations of the world’s largest and most dynamic region is no mean feat. Offering not only clear and integrated analysis, but also a diversity of perspectives, it will prove valuable to students of Asia for years to come.


    — Hon. Kevin Rudd, 26th Prime Minister of Australia and Global President of the Asia Society


    An astute, impressive, masterful capture of the complex geopolitical dynamic that defines Asia today, this is a study distinguished by the in-depth, compelling analysis of seasoned strategic experts. The Indo-Pacific today is the cockpit of intensifying major power rivalry, competing nationalisms and growing militarization—all of which suggest a growing uncertainty about the future of the region. These and a variety of other issues that affect the region, including the key challenge of counterbalancing China, are examined thoroughly and incisively in this study which should benefit university students and policy planners alike.


    — Nirupama Rao, former Foreign Secretary of India and Ambassador of India to China and the United States


    Want to know where the Asia region is headed? This comprehensive and well-written volume provides a clear picture of its political, economic, and social dynamics by the top scholars in the field. It has justly become the most widely used textbook for Asian international relations courses.


    — Susan Shirk, University of California, San Diego; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs


    Asia is becoming an ever more central player in global affairs. This volume, under a master editor's touch, captures the complexity of changing relationships, and the region's enormous potential.


    — Kent Calder, Director, Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins University SAIS


Features
Features
    • Comprehensive in scope and coverage, and well-conceptualized.
    • Completely updated (through 2021).
    • The contributors are among the world’s leading scholars and experts on the region.
    • A “one stop shop” on the international relations of Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
    • THE best university textbook (worldwide) on the subject.
    • Thoroughly researched and in-depth.
    • Clearly written and free from jargon.
    • Easy to understand graphics.



    1/19/23, Choice: This book was commended as an “Editors’ Pick” for January 2023.

    Link: https://www.choice360.org/choice-pick/forthcoming-titles-in-art-architecture-2023/



    1/31/23, Choice: This book was included in a roundup of top community college titles.

    Link: https://www.choice360.org/choice-pick/the-top-75-community-college-titles-january-2023-edition/



Awards
Awards
  • • Winner, Outstanding Academic Title (Choice Reviews, 2023)

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