The world economic pattern in the 1990s and Asia-Pacific economic cooperation

The world economic pattern of the 1990s will have many characteristics. For example: 1) the world economy will tend to move further toward multipolarization and several fairly large regional economic blocs will be formed with these polars as their center; 2) the United States, Japan, and Europe will play a dominant role in the new world economic pattern; and 3) the Asia-Pacific economies will be the most vigorous part of the world economy. Since the 1980s, with the development of the internationalization of the world economy and regional integration, Asia-Pacific economic cooperation has entered into a new period. However, it is very difficult to form a close entity of economic cooperation (such as the EC) including the whole Asia-Pacific region. Perhaps it is more practical to found a subregional economic cooperative body, such as a “Northeast Asian economic sphere,” in the near future. This article was originally prepared for a roundtable conference on “Economic Issues in the Northwest Pacific: Perspectives in a Dramatically Changing World,” held December 14–16, 1990, in Oiso, Japan. The cosponsors of the conference were Taisho Research Institute, the Japan Economic Foundation, and The American Council on Asian and Pacific Affairs.     

Reciprocity in Sino-American economic relations

He is the author ofChange, Continuity and Commitment: China’s Adaptive Foreign Policy (forthcoming, University Press of America).     

EMU and economic governance in Germany

This article argues the value of models of policy analysis which focus on the role of endogenous variables in explaining policy change. Studies of EMU and studies of German public policy in general have tended to be preoccupied with contextual variables as explanations of change. Whilst such variables are important in identifying necessary conditions of policy change, they underestimate the dynamics within the policy process. Policy change in EMU is explored as a negotiation process with two interacting dimensions: a ‘nested’, ‘two‐level’ bargaining game, involving creative linkage politics and sophisticated bargaining strategies, and a cognitive dimension of individual policy entrepreneurship and learning in the process. The conclusions deal with the character of economic governance in this sector and with the prospects for EMU in 1998–99.     

加入WTO对我国就业的影响

中国加入WTO后竞争力不同的行业所受到的就业影响不尽相同,其中汽车工业和农业受冲击最大,需要解决的就业问题最突出,而对纺织工业和机电工业就业的影响较小.纺织工业和机电工业要想在国际竞争中立于不败之地,必须努力加强自身素质,加快资产的战略重组,提高企业的竞争力.     

印度历史教科书中的中国形象

历史教科书是建构民族成员历史记忆乃至民族认同的重要媒介之一。在印度民族认同建构中,历史教科书如何认识中国这一历史悠久的邻国和定位中印关系,无疑具有重要意义。通过研究印度中央和六个邦现行的高小(6~8年级)、初中(9~10年级)阶段历史教科书,可将印度历史教科书中的中国形象按印度史的分期大致分为近代前、近代、独立后三个时期。近代前,中国是印度在世界范围内的主要贸易伙伴、友好邻国、物质文明大国,而在精神文明领域,中印是学生-精神导师关系。其中,西藏被塑造为印度文化圈的成员,而非中国的一部分。步入近代后,中印同样在帝国主义殖民浪潮冲击下,经历了衰弱和被剥削的文明古国,印度的教科书将中国视为难兄难弟。独立后,中国仍然被书写为国际格局中重要的一极,但中印之间围绕边界、涉核、涉巴等问题,形成了一定程度的对立,中国也开始在教科书中被视为对手和威胁。此外,印度的世俗民族主义、印度教民族主义和地方视角也导致了教科书中中国形象的差异性建构。     

A new phase in Japanese economic cooperation

The merging of the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) and the ExportImport Bank of Japan to form the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signals a new phase in Japanese economic cooperation. In this article, Akira Nishigaki, former president of the OECF , describes the role and significance of Japan's official development assistance and considers recent policy trends and issues. It is essential for the peace and prosperity of Japan and of the world as a whole, he says, that Japan maintain favorable relations of interdependence in the international community. In this spirit, he expresses his hope that in funding and implementing assistance the JBIC will continue to strengthen Japan's considerable contribution to the development of developing countries.     

Assessing economic growth in the Asian NICs

Little else is required to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice…. The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstacles with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operation.

The third and last duty of the sovereign or commonwealth is that of erecting and maintaining those public institutions and those public works, which, though they may be in the highest degree advantageous to a great society, are, however, of such a nature, that the profit could never repay the expense to any individual or small number of individuals, and which it therefore cannot be expected that any individual or small number of individuals should erect or maintain. The performance of this duty requires too very different degrees of expense in the different periods of society. (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Cannan edition, Chicago, 1976, Vol. I, pp. 49–50 and Vol. II, p. 244).     

China's Foreign Strategy

This article introduces four trends of China's foreign strategy. Analysis of China's diplomacy since the 1980s based on these concepts demonstrates China's intent to become a great power and its aspirations for a China-centric order.