Suchergebnisse

The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on 15 Novem­ber 2020 establishes the world's largest free trade area. The agreement was hailed as an important step forward for the international trade system: protectionism is no longer the only visible option for the third decade of the twenty-first century. But RCEP is a relatively weak instrument. It consolidates existing trade agreements in the region, but does not represent a breakthrough to a liberal economic space. It lacks the potential to make the Asia-Pacific region into a monolithic trading bloc, nor does it contribute to overcoming growing political tensions in the Indo-Pacific. (author's abstract)

The enormous leaps of growth and development experienced by Eastern and Southeast Asian states since the 1960s on account of their astonishing industrial development have led to concerns that a resulting global economic and political shift might favour the Pacific region at the expense of the "Atlantic region". A "Pacific century" was proclaimed, in which it was predicted that Asian-Pacific countries would outpace the traditional leading powers of the West. A more careful look quickly reveals that this view is too simplistic. From the point of view of various disciplines and covering different nations like China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea the authors of this publication pursue the question whether the 21st century can already be labelled the "Pacific Century". This was also the title of the interdisciplinary series of lectures held at the University of Göttingen/Germany in the winter semester 2003/2004. This series of lectures was jointly organized by the Department of Geography, the University of Göttingen and the Association of Pacific Studies e.V. (APSA). This 10th volume of the publication series "Pazifik Forum" contains contributions by W. Kreisel, M. Taube & Ka-Wai Yiu, M. Waibel, A. Croissant, B. Dahm, H. Schneider, R. Seib and R. Jordan.

"Asia, the Pacific Islands and the coasts of the Americas have long been studied separately. This essential single-volume history of the Pacific traces the global interactions and remarkable peoples that have connected these regions with each other and with Europe and the Indian Ocean, for millennia. From ancient canoe navigators, monumental civilisations, pirates and seaborne empires, to the rise of nuclear testing and global warming, Matt Matsuda ranges across the frontiers of colonial history, anthropology and Pacific Rim economics and politics, piecing together a history of the region. The book identifies and draws together the defining threads and extraordinary personal narratives which have contributed to this history, showing how localised contacts and contests have often blossomed into global struggles over colonialism, tourism and the rise of Asian economies. Drawing on Asian, Oceanian, European, American, ancient and modern narratives, the author assembles a fascinating Pacific region from a truly global perspective"--