China and East Asia

September 2010
Books: China Policy for Dummies
by Reviewer: Devin Stewart
A new book argues an established truism: that China’s model of state capitalism is finding favor with authoritarians in the developing world.

September 2010
The Month in Review
by the editors of Current History
An international chronology of events in April, May, June, and July 2010, country by country, day by day.

September 2010
Map of Asia
by the editors of Current History
Map of Asia

May 2010
Books: Behind China’s Rise in Africa
by William W. Finan Jr.
A new book likens Beijing’s proliferating interests on the continent to the dealings of a “Godfather” engaged in everything from oil and uranium to textiles and infrastructure.

April 2010
Vietnam and America: Parameters of the Possible
by Frederick Z. Brown
“The connection with the United States [is] a geopolitical asset in the competition that the Vietnamese have long carried out with China.”

November 2009
Pax Americana and the Rising Powers
by Rajan Menon
“While unipolar triumphalists deny historic changes are under way, multipolar pessimists exaggerate the pace of these changes and are cocksure about what lies ahead.”

September 2009
The China-US Relationship Goes Global
by Kenneth Lieberthal
“If the two sides can engage effectively…, Sino-US relations will enter a new stage in which ties will become deeper, stronger, more stable, and more important for the international system than ever before.”

September 2009
Is Beijing Ready for Global Leadership?
by Evan S. Medeiros
“Beijing has been largely working within—indeed, deftly leveraging—the current international system to advance its foreign policy objectives.”

September 2009
Unruly Stability: Why China’s Regime Has Staying Power
by Andrew G. Walder
“The overall political situation in China is far more favorable for the regime than it was during the relatively tumultuous and strife-torn first decade of economic reform.”

September 2009
China’s Beleaguered Intellectuals
by Merle Goldman
“Although efforts to assert political rights in China are quickly suppressed, and although few political reforms have been introduced, it would be wrong to discount the impact of such efforts.”

September 2009
Is Japan Lost Again?
by Edward J. Lincoln
“Japanese society may become more inward-looking—absorbed in problems ranging from reforming the economy to coping with a shrinking population.”

September 2009
In China’s Economy, the State’s Hand Grows Heavier
by Barry Naughton
“China’s policy makers have pulled the economy out of an incipient recession, but at the cost of unleashing a flood of liquidity on the system.”

September 2009
Perspective: The North Korea Problem: Dealing with Irrationality
by Bruce Cumings
Why is it so hard for Washington to learn from its mistakes in responding to Pyongyang's regularly recurring provocations?

September 2009
Book Reviews: The Revolution Will Be Digitized
by Kate Merkel-Hess
A new book argues that online mobilization and contention in China are not so much a force for change as they are a manifestation of developments already occurring in society.

September 2009
The Month in Review
by The Editors of Current History
April-July 2009

September 2009
Map of China and East Asia
by Editors of Current History
Map of China and East Asia

April 2009
A Country on the Move: China Urbanizes
by Kate Merkel-Hess and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
“China’s government has managed rural-to-urban migration through heavy-handed policies that have guarded the prosperity of the cities at the expense of rural areas. . . .”

November 2008
Asia’s Democracy Backlash
by JOSHUA KURLANTZICK
“Leaders of nations like Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam have begun to debate how they can apply a Chinese model to their own nations.”

November 2008
People Power Sours: Uncivil Society in Thailand and the Philippines
by MARK R. THOMPSON
“In both countries, mass-based urban campaigns against authoritarianism have degenerated into an assault on democracy.”

November 2008
Indonesia’s Reform Era Faces a Test
by GREG FEALY
“Upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections will be important in determining whether Indonesia continues along its present path of uneven but nonetheless substantial reform.”