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Why does Japan, with its efficiency-oriented technocracy, periodically adopt welfare-oriented, economically inefficient domestic policies? In answering this question Kent Calder shows that Japanese policymakers respond to threats to the ruling party's preeminence by extending income compensation, entitlements, and subsidies, with market-oriented retrenchment coming as crisis subsides. "Quite simply the most ambitious and strongly argued interpretation of a key dimension of Japanese political life to appear in English this decade."--David Williams, Japan Times "Historically dense and conceptually rich. [Forces] readers' attention to the domestic underpinnings of Japanese foreign policy."--Donald S. Zagoria, Foreign Affairs "Punctures the myth of Japan Inc. as a cool, rational monolith."--Kathleen Newland, Millennium "A bold reinterpretation of Japanese politics that will force us to rethink many of our current assumptions and will influence our research agenda."--Steven R. Reed, Journal of Japanese Studies

Front Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Information -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: Global Political Cities in International Affairs -- Part I: The Rise and Fall of Westphalia -- From City to Nation-State in World Affairs -- An Informatics Sea Change: Catalyst for the Global Political City -- Technology, Finance, and the Changing Nation-City Equation -- Part II: Four Faces of Global Political Cities -- Penumbras of Power in Global Political Cities -- Political Forums and the Transformation of Global Affairs -- Urban Grassroots and the Global Agenda -- Civic Leadership Shaping the World -- Conclusion: Cities and the Future of Global Governance -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- Back Cover.

Eurasian reconnection and renaissance -- The Silk Road syndrome -- The making of Eurasia -- Realizing geographic synergies -- Quiet revolution in China -- China and Southeast Asia -- An unbalanced Sino-Russian entente -- Deepening Sino-European ties -- Shadows and critical uncertainties -- Toward a new world order -- Prospects and policy implications

"How Singapore's solutions to common problems can provide examples for other societies. Nearly everyone knows that Singapore has one of the most efficient governments and competitive, advanced economies in the world. But can this unique city-state of some 5.5 million residents also serve as a model for other advanced economies as well as for the emerging world? Respected East Asia expert Kent Calder provides clear answers to this intriguing question in his new, groundbreaking book that looks at how Singapore's government has harnessed information technology, data, and a focus on innovative, adaptive governance to become a model smart city, smart state. Calder describes Singapore as a laboratory for solutions to problems experienced by urban societies around the world. In particular, he shows how Singapore has dealt successfully with education, energy, environmental, housing, and transportation challenges; many of its solutions can be adapted in a wide range of other societies. Calder also explains how Singapore offers lessons for how countries can adapt their economies to the contemporary demands of global commerce. Singapore consistently ranks at the top in world surveys measuring competitiveness, ease of doing business, protection of intellectual property, and absence of corruption. The book offers concrete insights and a lucid appreciation of how Singapore's answers to near-universal problems can have a much broader relevance, even in very different societies"--

Introduction : confronting the paradox -- Paradox and Japanese public policy -- The circles-of-compensation concept -- The political economy of connectedness -- Finance -- Land and housing -- Food supply -- Energy -- Transportation -- Communications -- Japan's domestic circles and the broader world -- Models for the future -- Conclusion : unraveling the paradox

The challenge of a new world emerging -- Where geography still matters -- Six critical junctures and Eurasia's transformation -- Comparative energy producer profiles -- The comparative political economy of Eurasian petrostates -- Energy-insecure Asian capitalist consumers -- Emerging ententes amid complex continentalism -- Strategic implications -- Prospects and policy implications

In this groundbreaking book Kent E. Calder argues that a new transnational configuration is emerging in Asia, driven by economic growth, rising energy demand, and the erosion of longstanding geopolitical divisions. What Calder calls the New Silk Road--with a strengthening multi-faceted relationship between East Asia and the Middle East at its core--could eventually emerge as one of the world's most important multilateral configurations. Straddling the border between comparative politics and international relations theory, this important book will stimulate debate and discussion in both fields.

The overseas basing of troops has been a central pillar of American military strategy since World War II--and a controversial one. Are these bases truly essential to protecting the United States at home and securing its interests abroad--for example in the Middle East-or do they needlessly provoke anti-Americanism and entangle us in the domestic woes of host countries? Embattled Garrisons takes up this question and examines the strategic, political, and social forces that will determine the future of American overseas basing in key regions around the world. Kent Calder traces the history of overseas bases from their beginnings in World War II through the cold war to the present day, comparing the different challenges the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union have confronted. Providing the broad historical and comparative context needed to understand what is at stake in overseas basing, Calder gives detailed case studies of American bases in Japan, Italy, Turkey, the Philippines, Spain, South Korea, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He highlights the vulnerability of American bases to political shifts in their host nations--in emerging democracies especially--but finds that an American presence can generally be tolerated when identified with political liberation rather than imperial succession. --From publisher's description

Despite the enduring importance of the U.S.–Japan security alliance, the broader relationship between the two countries is today beset by sobering new difficulties. In this comprehensive comparative analysis of the transpacific alliance and its political, economic, and social foundations, Kent E. Calder, a leading Japan specialist, asserts that bilateral relations between the two countries are dangerously eroding as both seek broader options in a globally oriented world.Calder documents the quiet erosion of America's multidimensional ties with Japan as China rises, generations change, and new forces arise in both American and Japanese politics. He then assesses consequences for a twenty-first-century military alliance with formidable coordination requirements, explores alternative foreign paradigms for dealing with the United States, adopted by Britain, Germany, and China, and offers prescriptions for restoring U.S.–Japan relations to vitality once again

The overseas basing of troops has been a central pillar of American military strategy since World War II--and a controversial one. Are these bases truly essential to protecting the United States at home and securing its interests abroad--for example in the Middle East-or do they needlessly provoke anti-Americanism and entangle us in the domestic woes of host countries? Embattled Garrisons takes up this question and examines the strategic, political, and social forces that will determine the future of American overseas basing in key regions around the world. Kent Calder traces the history of overseas bases from their beginnings in World War II through the cold war to the present day, comparing the different challenges the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union have confronted. Providing the broad historical and comparative context needed to understand what is at stake in overseas basing, Calder gives detailed case studies of American bases in Japan, Italy, Turkey, the Philippines, Spain, South Korea, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He highlights the vulnerability of American bases to political shifts in their host nations--in emerging democracies especially--but finds that an American presence can generally be tolerated when identified with political liberation rather than imperial succession. --From publisher's description.