Asian Politics and Global Transformation

1. Asian Politics and Global Transformation

2. Globalization • Globalization – creation of international market economy emphasizing material consumption and capitalist production, trade and financial markets along with NGOs and IGOs supporting that order • Defenders emphasize material benefits; detractors emphasize winners and losers – controversial among trade unions, intellectual and political elite, and many grassroots organizations • The study of hybridity is the essence of our study and we need to examine our own assumptions before entering into such studies

3. The Confluence of National, Transnational, and Global Politics • Individual and Communities – Universal Declaration of Human Rights – American interpretation of rights as individual and procedural – Asia has traditionally privileged community at the expense of the individual • Political Rights and American Influence – American Bill of Rights – Myanmar example of abuses of these rights – Controversy over abortion as an example of potentially illegitimate American influence • IGOs and NGOs – Fourth World Conference on Women 1995 case study – SiemRiep Gift shop run by NGOs – NGO sponsored lawyer who helped women in India make it through ponderous court system

4. Identity Politics and Cultural Rights • Preservation of human rights succumbs to the drive for territorial integrity of the nation-state • RomilaThapar criticizes sledgehammer history – Hindutva • Nihonjinron debate contrasted with export of animie, manga, sushi and cooperation among international scholars dealing with Japan’s past as well as the preservation of a unique and controversial approach to history in middle school text – Hiroshima case study

5. Human Security in the Twenty-first Century • UNDP 1994 emphasized freedom from fear and want – human security seamless and multidimensional • Wars in Asia accounted for one half of all battle deaths from 1946-2002 – As of 2007 four conflicts continue including Kashmir, Karen State, Mindanao and Tamil Eelem • Nuclear weapons on Korean Peninsula threaten regional security • Human trafficking impacts the poor • Expenditures on human development are not simply correlated with less violence

6. Nuclear Asia • Abdul Qadeer Khan – Pakistani national hero contributed to nuclear proliferation in North Korea, Iran, and Libya – Released from house arrest 2009 • Six party talks to convince North Korea to terminate its nuclear weapons program • Pakistan and India have not signed the non-proliferation treaty • U.S. –India Nuclear Cooperation Accord and Non- Proliferation Enhancement Act

7. Learning from Asia • Boundaries of the Social Sciences – Vadana Shiva criticizes Western approaches to science as privileging reductionism and dominance – John Clammer emphasizes subversive potential of Shrine Shinto • Rethinking Development and Democracy – Culture and its changeability – trade off between equity and development brought into question by East Asian experience – Indian development model preserving democracy and development – Lloyd Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber argue success was due to the dominance of Congress Party with its commitment to moderate politics and secular democracy

8. Conclusion • Nationalism grows as the nation-state is challenged • Tensions exist between efforts to grow while maintaining control • India balances pressures on territory to avoid a worst case scenario • Japan wrestles with the aftermath of the Fukushima catastrophe