Introductory essay to symposium on modes of production and social formations in Asian Societies

Abstract

The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars and the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars have always attempted to provide alternatives to “established” scholarship in the Asian studies field. When CCAS came into existence in the mid-1960s, the main task was to formulate a critique of the cold war inspired scholarship of the 1950s, and to attempt to counteract the prevailing views concerning the communist countries and national liberation movements of Asia. This in turn led to an analysis of the structure of academic inquiry and academic funding in the United States, and to a realization of the political character of the “apolitical” stance of the Asian studies academic establishment.     

Expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases

We presented participants with syndromal, witness credibility, or anatomically detailed doll evidence to determine (a) whether these different types of expert evidence exert differential influence on participants' judgments and (b) whether the influence of this evidence could be better explained by the relative scientific status or the probabilistic qualities of the research presented. Additionally, we investigated whether a strong or weak cross-examination of the expert would be more successful in discrediting the information provided in the expert's testimony. Findings suggest that participants are less influenced by expert testimony based on probability data (i.e., syndromal evidence) than by expert testimony based on case history data (i.e., credibility of anatomically detailed doll evidence). Participant responses did not differ as a function of the strength of the cross-examination of the expert. As expected, women were more likely to respond in a pro-prosecution direction than were men. Implications for the use of expert evidence in child sexual abuse cases are discussed.     

Policies toward North Korea: A time for new thinking

It is a commonplace among students of Northeast Asian security issues to regard North Korea as a rogue state, one which operates outside the norms of global society and which presents an ever-present threat to regional security. In this article, however, the authors present an unorthodox line of analysis which attempts to see North Korea as it sees itself: a state whose external support system rapidly and traumatically disappeared a decade ago; a state confronted by hostile neighbors who wish to undermine its regime and who are heavily armed for possible military actions against it; and a state whose limited ability to participate in the global economy is confined to selling abroad for hard currency the few things that it does well: military equipment, including missile technology. Thus viewed, the authors find wanting the policies pursued towards North Korea by the United States, Japan, South Korea, and China. They stipulate a series of precise policy shifts that these four states must undertake to encourage North Korea to play a more active and positive role in building a durable framework for Northeast Asian regional security.     

A union of gender equality and pragmatic patriarchy: international marriages and citizenship laws in Singapore

As a patriarchal society, government policies, societal norms and government regulations in Singapore mirror that normative ideal. Citizenship status and rights along gender lines, manifested in the legal recognition of children of international marriages, reflected this reality for much of Singapore's independence. However, the onslaught of globalization, the rise in international marriages, disconcerting declining birth rates, and an acceptance of ‘foreign talent’ have given the economic imperative and demographic impulse to grant citizenship (by descent) to a person born outside Singapore whose father or mother is a citizen of Singapore, by birth, registration or descent. Previously, such a person would be granted citizenship only if his/her father was a Singapore citizen by birth. This paper examines the background and contextual realities leading to the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Act 2004. It argues that the landmark constitutional amendment was motivated by pragmatic considerations of demography, economics, and political governance. The paper contends that state sovereignty, while seemingly challenged by international marriages, is still preserved rather than negated. It suggests that the state's ideological apparatus vis-à-vis the family is adaptable, enabling the continued institutional influence, if not control, over the family as the basic building block of Singapore society.     

Globalization,Systems Integration,and the Future of Great Power War

Contemporary economic globalization differs from past increases in global commerce, especially because modern foreign direct investment and systems integration techniques allow factories in different countries to specialize in the design and production of parts rather than complete products. Stephen Brooks has argued, based on both liberal and realist logics, that this new form of globalization might bring a “commercial peace,” at least among the great powers. But economic globalization did not simply appear by itself. Firms and governments made conscious decisions through a process of systems integration and strategic planning that led to a wide variety of international economic relationships. That diversity of economic connections combines with the variety of strategic situations in the international environment—variations in geography, national intentions, policy history, etc.—to suggest a range of possible constraints on countries' offensive capability and on the prospects for economic gains from conquest. As has always been the case, conquest in the future will sometimes prove valuable and other times will not. Globalization does not imply the dawn of an era of commercial peace.