GLOBALIZATION

AND THE ASIA

PACIFIC AND
SOUTH ASIA
EHITO KIMURA
OVERVIEW
The reading explores the relationship between the
process of globalization and the region of Asia
Pacific and South Asia.
2 Processes occurring in World Politics

Emerging
Acceleration of
influence of Asia
Globalization
as a global force
GLOBALIZATION
• Defined as a worldwide integration along
economic, political, social, and cultural lines
ASIA
• Term comes from the ancient Greeks who
categorized the world into three continents,
Europe, Africa, and Asia.
• The exact boundaries of Asia have been a
matter of contention since its inception and
demarcation has often been made along cultural
or political lines.
ASIA PACIFIC
• Area of the world in or around Asia and Pacific
Ocean (East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania)
• Occasionally refers to a broad area evidenced
by the regional grouping, APEC (Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation), which sometimes
includes South Asia and even Central Asia.
• „Pacific‟ part usually refers to the Pacific Islands
(Oceania), the island groupings of Melanesia,
Micronesia, and Polynesia.
ASIA PACIFIC AND SOUTH ASIA
• East (or NE) Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Pacific Islands
• South Asia
VARIATIONS AMONG STATES AND
PEOPLE
• Includes some economically developed states
and highly impoverished countries
• Includes largest and most populous states and
some of the world‟s smallest population
• Variation in geography, political systems,
historical experience, and broad demographic
characteristics
ASIA PACIFIC AND SOUTH ASIA

ASIA
PACIFIC
1/3 of world’s
landmass
2/3 of global
population
35% of global GDP
1/3 of world exports
SOUTH
ASIA
But still millions of people are affected by:

Other socio-
economic
problems
Gender
poverty
inequality

hunger

HIV/AIDS
ASIA PACIFIC AND SOUTH ASIA AS A
NEW POLITICAL FORCE
• Driven by the robust economic growth in China
and India and its strategic implications
• US implemented „Pacific Pivot‟ – committing
more resources and attention to the region.
• Shift: „Atlantic century‟ to „Pacific Century‟
 The Asia-Pacific has become a key driver
of global politics. Stretching from the
Indian subcontinent to the western
shores of the Americas, the region spans
two oceans – the Pacific and Indian – that
are increasingly linked by shipping and
strategy…
 What is the
relationship between
And now…
globalization and the
Asia Pacific and
South Asia?
 As an object impacted by
globalization
(Externalist View)

ASIA PACIFIC
AND SOUTH
ASIA

As an alternative As a subject pushing

globalization forward
to globalization (Generative View)
EXTERNALIST
VIEW OF
GLOBALIZATION
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• THESIS: Globalization is an external
phenomenon being pushed into the region by
world powers.

• Globalization can be understood as a process

that transforms the Asia Pacific and South Asia.
EXTERNALIST VIEW
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
• Brings economic • Economic
development underdevelopment
• Political progress • Uprooting of local and
• Social and cultural tradition and culture
diversity
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• One of the earliest manifestation
 Western arrival in the Asia Pacific and
South Asia
 Western powers prodded and
muscled their way to political and
economic dominance.
EXTERNALIST VIEW
Environmental
/Ecological
Advantage

Cultural WESTERN Social

Characteristics SUPERIORITY Advantage

Political
advantage
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Colonialism (beginning 1500s) – brought
enormous, often devastating damages
• This „first globalization‟ had deep implications for
domestic political structures in many indigenous
polities.
EXTERNALIST VIEW
Portuguese Invasion of
Melaka in 1511

Arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in

the Philippines in 1521

The Dutch strengthened their position in the

Dutch East Indies in the 17th Century

British –South Asia, Burma,

and Malay Peninsula

French – Indo-China
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Mode of colonial rule and domination – varied
• Direct colonial rule vs. Indirect rule
• Europeans brought new:
– Economic practices
– Religious beliefs
– Cultural values
– Political structures
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Even places that did not experience colonial rule
decidedly had to deal with the consequences of
Western influence.
Ex.
– Japan (Coming of the Americans ->Meiji Restoration)
– Thailand (changes during the reign of King Mongkut
(Rama IV) and King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) – “great
modernizer”
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• 19th-20th Century – Emergence of movements
for Nationalism and Independence
– These movements were also products of an
increasingly globalized world.
– Scholars argue that the roots of national identity lie in
the rise of Western industrialization and capitalism
– Example: Jose Rizal
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• World War II – marks another way in which the
region comes to be at once integrated and
influenced by external forces.
– Marked the beginning of the end of Japan‟s imperial
domination in the region.
• The region became mired in the emerging politics of the
Cold War.
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• After World War II
– Political instability
– Economic reform
– Fall of China

• US stressed Japan‟s economic growth and its incorporation

into the world economy.
• US- opened markets for Japanese goods
• Japan – supply equipment and goods for US forces and
other aid programs.
• Became part of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trades (GATT)
EXTERNALIST VIEW
South Korea,
Taiwan, and
other East
Asian
Country

Japan
Increasing
Globalized
Economic
System
(1970s-1990s)
EXTERNALIST VIEW

High-flying growth of
Success of East Asian Southeast Asian countries
economies in 1980s-1990s (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore, and Vietnam)
EXTERNALIST VIEW

East Asia Southeast Asia

• Relatively close ties • Relatively close ties
between state and business
between state and elite
business elite • Some degree of
• Some degree of autonomous decision-
making structure
autonomous decision- • Rise of manufacturing
making structure • Much more reliant on
• Rise of manufacturing infusions of foreign capital,
based on fixed exchange
rate policies and
corresponding investments
and returns
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Much of the rise in financial investment can also
be attributed to the role of International Financial
Institutions (IFIs)
– Ex. World Bank & International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• Cornerstones of economic liberation and globalization in the
post-war global economy
• Initially designed to help rebuild Europe
• Soon turned their attention to the developing world including
Southeast Asia
• During the Cold War, they promoted neo-liberal economic
policies
EXTERNALIST VIEW
Examples:
• Indonesia
– Suharto‟s policies and the economic framework under
the IMF and World Bank provided crucial assistance
as well as foundation for the legitimacy of the
authoritarian Suharto regime
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Thailand
– IMF and World Bank pushed liberalization and export
oriented growth which led to increasing amounts of
foreign investment and double digit GDP growth
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Philippines
– IMF and World Bank had a cozy relationship with
Ferdinand Marcos whose tenure had a disastrous
impact on the country‟s economy and left it with
nearly US$30 billion in debt.
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Mid 1990s, the policies that had driven high
levels of growth in the „tiger‟ economies began
to show their limits.
– Much of the investments going to Thailand, Indonesia,
and Malaysia – „hot‟ money looking for quick returns
on capital.
– When investors began to realize the unsustainability
of this model, financial speculators began to attack
the currencies – central banks would have to readjust
their rates.
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• July 1997 – Thai economy collapsed
– Investment fled like a massive herd
– Crisis spread to much of the region (Asian Financial
Crisis)
EXTERNALIST VIEW
Different Interpretations of the Asian Financial
Crisis:

 IFIs and orthodox economists

The crisis occurred due to poor
policies, weak governance,
corruption, poor institutions, and
inadequate liberalization.
(globalization had not gone far
enough)
 other critical voices
The problem was precisely the
unfettered capital resulting
from processes of globalization
over the past several decades.

Both views recognized the deep impact globalization has

had on the economies in the region and the influence it
played in the creating the 1997 crisis.
EXTERNALIST VIEW
CHINA INDIA
- began liberalizing their economy in the - began to liberalize their economy in
late 1970s with the reforms introduced by 1991 and increased levels of trade and
Deng Xiaoping. foreign direct investment particularly in
the textile and services sectors of the
economy.

Both countries have experienced high levels of economic growth as a

result and have also become much more integrated into the global
economy including membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO)
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Economic globalization and liberalization has
arguably had offer broad regional effects as well.
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Working Conditions
– In Asia Pacific – labor practices are undergoing significant
changes
– Japan, Korea, Australia – a more global economy has
meant an uptick in non-standard employment,
characterized by temporary and part-time employment.
– Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam – there has been an
increase in informal employment such as self-employment,
family workers, and informal enterprise workers
– Philippines – 18% of workers are underemployed
– Indonesia – nearly quarter of all workers are either
unemployed or involuntarily underemployed
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Politics
– Proponents often argue that liberal and democratic
political values should not be interpreted as Western,
but rather universal thus explaining the expansion of
democracy worldwide.
– The past 3 decades have witnessed the substantial
fall in authoritarian regimes with a corresponding rise
in democratic regimes.
• Attributed to rising middle classes, more globally connected
world, and end of Cold War
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Example:
– Fall of Suharto‟s regime in Indonesia
• When the Asia Financial Crisis brought the country‟s
economy to its knees, large-scale protests, the flight of
capital, and the lack of international support ed Suharto to
step down in May 1998
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Effects on Culture
– Globalization is leading to cultural homogenization
and the destruction of cultural diversity.
– Cultural Westernization (McWorld)
• Increase of McDonalds stores in Asia
EXTERNALIST VIEW
– domestic fast food chains also
popped up throughout Asia
• Jollibee (Philippines)
• California Fried Chicken (Indonesia)
• MOS Burger (Japan)
• Jumbo King (India)
– Rapid expansion of supermarkets
• Diets in Asia  Westernized
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Changes in music, clothing, television, and film.
• MTV-ization or Hollywoodization
• Western and American cultural trends have
spread globally and increasingly marginalize the
way in which local cultural practices are
expressed.
EXTERNALIST VIEW
• Globalization and the region of Asia Pacific and
South Asia can be viewed as largely one-way
process whereby outside forces have brought
fundamental and far-reaching changes to the
region, for better or for worse, in ways that would
not have occurred otherwise.
GENERATING
GLOBALIZATION:
THE ASIA
PACIFIC AND
SOUTH ASIA AS A
SPRINGBOARD
(Generative View)
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• The region is more of an autonomous agent
serving as an engine for globalization.
• Shows important ways in which the region is
also influencing and transforming the nature of
globalization itself.
• Seeks to re-interpret the facile narrative that
globalization is simply a form of Westernization
imposing itself upon Asia.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Asia led the global economy only “falling behind”
from the eighteenth century.
• The Europeans did not create the spice trade.
The thriving spice trade in the region and
beyond is what drew the European powers to
the region.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Circumnavigating the globe was a means to find
cheaper and faster ways to bring the goods back
to Europe.
• Europeans were interested in cutting out the
middleman.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Asia, not the West, was the central
global force in the early modern world
economy.
– It was the site of the world‟s most important
trade routes and in some places more
technologically advanced than the West in
key areas such as science and medicine.
– China had a historically unprecedented
maritime fleet in the early fifteenth century
under admiral Zeng Ho which traveled
within the region and as far as Africa.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• The rise of Europe in the eighteenth century
came only after the colonial powers extracted
silver from the colonies and pried their way into
Asian markets.
– The re-emergence of Asia today is seen as a
restoration of its traditional dominant position in the
global economy.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Colonies were often „laboratories of modernity‟
where „innovations in political form, and social
imaginary, and in what defined the modern itself,
were not European exports but traveled as often
the other way around‟ (Stoler, 2006)
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Colonial Policing in American colonies
– Practices and technologies such as counter-
insurgency, surveillance, and torture were developed
and perfected in the colonial Philippines before
making their way back to the core.

• Medicine and Public Health

– American scientists and physicians in the Philippines
brought back colonial bureaucratic practices and
identities to urban health departments in the US in the
early twentieth century.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Dutch East Indies
– The colonial experience in the realm of the intimate
and the personal influenced European notions of
sexuality and social reform.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Post-colonial Era
– The extent to which Japanese
development in the 1950s, 1960s, and
1970s actually shaped and in many
ways globalized key parts of the world
economy.
– Japan embarked on a massive project
to procure raw materials such as coal
and iron at unprecedented economies of
scale allowing them to gain a
competitive edge in the global
manufacturing market.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
– China is now one of the world‟s largest importers of
basic raw materials such as iron and has surpassed
Japan, the US, and Europe in steel production.
– In terms of its low wage labor and supply chain
management, China has also had an enormous
impact on the availability and consumption of goods
around the globe.
 GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• China has also now surpassed the
world Bank in lending to developing
countries.
– The China Development Bank and the
China Export Import Bank signed loans of
at least US$110 billion to other developing
country governments and companies in
2009 and 2010, surpassing the US$100.3
billion from mid-2008 to mid-2010 by the
IFIs.
– The implications here are political as well
as economic. (Grants and loans made by
states often have economic and political
strings attached as the Japanese
experience has shown)
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• India – has opened up and
emphasized an export-oriented
strategy.
– Textiles and other low wage sectors
have been a key part of the economy,
but high value exports such as
software development have also been
highly successful.
– It is also playing a key role in global
service provision trends in
outsourcing and off-shoring increase.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• India and China – have also become a major
source of international migrant labor, which is
also one of the fundamental characteristics of
the era of globalization.
– This includes the migration of highly skilled labor into
the tech industry based in Silicon Valley.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Flow of domestic workers to other places in the
region, or to the Middle East, Europe, and the
United States.
• Often undocumented and working conditions can be poor, even
deadly.
• Women constitute a large majority of many
countries‟ migrant pool
– Indonesia (79%)
– Philippines (71%)
– Sri Lanka (66%)
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Remittances – become a core source of income
for many of the region‟s economies.
(Sometimes, these exceed the flow of official
development assistance (ODA) or foreign direct
assistance (FDI).
– Philippines (11% of the entire economy)
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• In 2007, India, China, and the Philippines were
three of the top four recipient states of migrant
remittances totaling US$70 billion (the other
country was Mexico).

• The region is both the source and recipient of

the influences of the massive globalization of
migration.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Rise of Regional Free Trade Agreements
– Regionalism can promote learning, assuage domestic
audiences to the benefits of free trade, and form the
institutional framework to scale up from regional
cooperation to global cooperation.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Adoption of „open regionalism‟
– Refers to the principle of non-discrimination, more
specifically an openness in membership and
openness in terms of economic flows.
– Which aims to develop and maintain cooperation with
outside actors.
– Meant to resolve the tension between the rise of
regional trade agreements and the push for global
trade as embodied by the WTO
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Most regional trade agreements and
organizations in other regions including the
North America (NAFTA) and Europe (European
Union) tend to be exclusive and thereby „closed‟
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Open regionalism
– Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
– Formed in 1989
– Includes 21 member economies along the Pacific Rim
including East Asian and Southeast Asian states
– Also Russia, Peru, Chile, US, Canada.
– It continues to push for a vision of regional
cooperation that is consistent with and advances
globalization.
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Culture and globalization
– The region is a source of a wide variety of cultural
phenomena that have also spread outward to the
West and the rest of the world
– Spread of kawaii or „cute‟ culture or „Pink
Globalization‟ (from Japan)
GENERATING GLOBALIZATION
• Globalization has not been one-way street
– The region is generative of many aspects of the
globalization process.
– This can be seen both historically and more recently
and across a broad variety of domains from the
economy to political structures to culture.
THE ANTI-
GLOBAL
IMPULSE:
REGIONAL
ALTERNATIVES
TO
GLOBALIZATION
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• See the region as a source of resistance to
globalization or to global or Western powers.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Japanese colonialism in the 1930s
and 1940s
– East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere –
merely replicated imperial relationships
in East and Southeast Asia with new
masters
• Push back against Western Imperialism
• Asia for Asians
• Need to „liberate‟ the region from Europe.
• Referred initially to Japan, China, and
Manchukuo but with the outbreak of
WWII, Japan also looked beyond
Northeast Asia to South and Southeast
Asia
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Members of the Sphere:
– Japan
– Manchukuo
– Mangjiang (Outer Mongolia)
– Republic of China
– Burma
– Philippines
– Vietnam
– Kampuchea
– Laos
– Azad Hind
– Thailand
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
– The failure of the Co-prosperity Sphere was a result
not only of Japan‟s loss in WWII, but also the overt
racism of Japan itself towards its supposed co-
members.
– It became clear that the Sphere was for Japanese
interests only.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Concept of Asian values
– Became popular among leaders in the region in the
mid-to late 1990s
– Example:
• PM Mohamed Mahatir (Malaysia) – argued that Asia has
culturally distinct characteristics that make it different from
Western liberal democracies
 The Asian way is to reach consensus on
national goals within the democratic
framework, to take the middle path, the
Confucian Chun Yung or the Islamic,
awsatuha, to exercise tolerance and
sensitivity towards others.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• This contrasts with Western values where „every
individual can do what he likes, free from any
restraint by governments [and] individuals soon
decide that they should break every rule and
code governing their society‟.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Proponents of the Asian values thesis argued
that Asians (not clearly defined) tend to respect
authority, hard work, thrift, and emphasize the
community over the individual.
– Asia operates on the basis of harmony and
consensus rather than majority rule.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Concepts such as individual rights, political
liberalism, and democracy are Western
concepts, antithetical to the Asian traditions.
 It is altogether shameful, if
ingenious, to cite Asian values as
an excuse for autocratic
practices and denial of basic
rights and liberties.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Regional Arrangements
– There are other institutions proposed or implemented
at the regional level that are more exclusively and
self-consciously „Asian‟.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
Example:
• East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC)
– Was pushed as an alternative to APEC, more
precisely an APEC without Western States.
– Proposed members:
• ASEAN
• China
• South Korea
• Japan
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Today‟s ASEAN +3 (APT), which includes China,
South Korea, and Japan, is seen as a successor
to the EAEC but because it is embedded in a
slew of other institutional arrangements, is not
seen as the radical alternative of the earlier
vision.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Asian Monetary Fund (AMF)
– The fund was envisioned to have a capitalization of
US$100 billion and include ten members:
• China
• Hong Kong
• Japan
• South Korea
• Australia
• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• Thailand
• Philippines
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• The initial draft proposal suggested that the AMF
would act autonomously from the IMF.
– The United States immediately sought to strike down
the proposal
– US opposition succeeded and the failure of the AMF
meant a continuation of an IMF-centered neo-liberal
approach to financial governance.
 THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Emergence of regional terror
networks
Example:
– Jemaah Islamiyah or JI
• The origins and the extensiveness of JI
are murky
• Its main operations have been in
Indonesia with apparent links in Malaysia,
Philippines and Thailand.
• Infamous for the 2002 Bali bombings
• The alleged goals are territorial and also
regionalist, namely an Islamic state in
Indonesia followed by a pan-Islamic
caliphate incorporating Malaysia,
Singapore, Brunei and the southern
Philippines.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Various Local Governments that have emerged
Example:
• Village of Santi Suk (Thailand)
– Created their own currency following the Asian
financial crisis
– „bia‟(merit) – name of currency
• Operated through a „central bank‟ located in the village
• The currency can be used to purchase various commodities
but cannot be exchanged for Thailand‟s national currency
(baht)
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Other self-sufficiency movements (in Thailand)
included associations such as traditional herbal
practitioners, „self-sufficiency‟ groups,
community owned rice mills, and cooperative
shops.
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Local production movements
– Japan: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and
Seikatsu Club encouraged consumers to buy ethically
and locally
– India: Lok Samiti group –advocates local village level
education and development and campaigns against
the Coca Cola bottling plant in Mehdiganj
THE ANTI-GLOBAL IMPULSE
• Local movements eschew global capitalism,
states push back against the perception of
Western imperialism, and religious movements
emerge from the perceived threat of secularism.
CONCLUSION
• The different lenses show how globalization is a
complex process where regional dynamics must
be understood as both cause and a
consequence.