Asia's New Regionalism

By Ellen L. Frost

As the political drive to establish closer ties among Asian governments continues to gain momentum, there has been much debate about the realities of Asian regionalism. Does the community-building... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 158826579X
• ISBN13: 9781588265791
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Lynne Rienner Pub
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A book about Asia for us who are not specialists

Frost's book introduces new ways of thinking about that huge part of the globe which to me was a blur except for a few obvious countries and rivers. I hadn't visualized Asia as surrounded, defined, and connected by water. I hadn't thought about the impact of our consumerism on the growth of "containerization", or about the incredible diversity of cultures, religions, languages, and populations--and how this vast 'region' is being drawn toward modernization willy-nilly. Chapter 7, "The Architecture of Regional Integration," describes the process already underway. A whole new mental horizon now accompanies the word "ASIA." Very interesting.

Even for us "non-policy wonks"

One of Ellen Frost's stated goals in undertaking the task of showing how Asia should now be viewed as a fluid, maritime, cross-borders region rather than singular countries, was to show the design of what she called "Asia Major" in a way even us non-policy wonks can understand. She totally succeeds. I'm sure experts will learn a lot from her compelling take on "remapping" to "comb out this tangled landscape." But it is also for all the rest of us, Frost paints this word-portrait of Asia's profile, splaying out, as she puts it, far beyond its precolonial parental trading networks to what, thanks in part to high speed communication and transportation, it is becoming now--an integrated region whose contours extend from coastal India to the Russian Far East and coastal Australia, (with its `golden shrimp on the barbie") to Taiwan and China. If you're interested in learning more about the market-driven reality of Asia's new architecture, particularly China's resurgent role and everyone's security interests, pick up this insightful AND delightful book immediately! Americans, she says, should encourage Asia's regionalism--not just tolerate or fear it. This book goes a long way to help us do just that.

A delight to read

Previous reviews have rightfully emphasized the important insights Ellen Frost offers about an extremely important part of the world. Her exploration of "Maritime Asia" is enlightening and brings developments in this wide array of countries into useful perspective. It is a significant benefit to the reader that she does this with a delightful and entertaining writing style. For all its erudition, this is not a ponderous academic text - far from it. Rather, Ms. Frost uses easily accessible language and clever and amusing turns of phrase that keep the reader alert. In short, not only is this an excellent book from the substantive angle, it is also a very enjoyable read. I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to understand better how this vast area will impact us all in the years to come.

New Mental Maps

Asia's New Regionalism, by Ellen Frost, is an ambitious and successful attempt to break old mental maps and present new ways of looking at Asia. The central theme is the match (or lack thereof) between the fast paced regeneration of maritime Asia, linking the booming economies found along Asia's coasts from India to Japan, and the comparatively ponderous government-driven push to promote regional organizations. But the glory of this book is Frost's sense of adventure, as she looks at breakneck change through different academic prisms. Government policy makers and businessmen interested in Asia wil find their minds fully engaged, students will find the text stimulating, and professors will spend the next decade attempting to answer the many questions she has raised.

Asiaa's New Regionalism

There has been a lot of talk recently about the rise of Asia, especially why Americans hould be worried about the threat from China's manufacturing prowess and military build up. Ellen Frost takes a different tack. She looks first at the history of trade and cultural contact between what she calls "Maritime Asia" and the rest of the world as well as within Maritime Asia itself. Then she analyzes what has been happening recently and what is likely to happen in the future. Clearly there has been a realignment in Asia, spurred largely by China's economic growth, the rise of China-centered production networks, and the boom in manufactured exports to the U.S. and Europe. Private actors are taking pragmatic steps that add up to what Frost calls "regionalization." Governments, by contrast, are pursuing "regionalism," but their initiatives are not likely to lead, at least in the near term, to genuine integration based on formal political structures. Asia will not mimic the European Union, or even the several common markets in the western hemisphere. Instead, Asians are inventing a new and more flexible rgional order--one that embraces China instead of seeking to contain it. Frost writes clearly and in just 250 pages covers the history of Maritime Asia, the expanding geographic concept of the region (what she calls "Asia Major"), and the prospects for greater Asian economic and political integration. Anyone interested in what is happening today in Asia, not just scholars, can learn a lot from reading this book.