Chapter 6

Globalization and the Asia Pacific and South Asia

DEFINITION OF TERMS:

• Globalization - defined as the worldwide integration along economic, political, social, and cultural lines

• Asia - comes from the ancient Greeks who categorized the world into 3 continents (Europe, Africa, and Asia)

• Asia Pacific - refers broadly to the area of the world in or around Asia and the Pacific Ocean; typically includes the states in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania

• ‘Pacific’ part of Asia - usually refers to the Pacific Islands, or Oceania, the island groupings of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia

• Asia Pacific and South Asia - refer together to the regions of East (or Northeast) Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South Asia

The area makes up nearly a third of the world's land mass and two-thirds of the global population. The combined economies of the region now generate the largest share of global GDP (gross domestic product) at 35 per cent, compared with Europe (28 per cent) and North America (23 per cent) (Asian Development Bank, 2012: 156). ). Despite this economic growth, there are still millions of people affected by poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS, gender inequality and other socio-economic problems in the region.

Relationship between the process of globalization and the region of Asia Pacific and South Asia

THREE FRAMEWORKS ALONG THREE TRAJECTORIES:

1. The region as an object impacted by globalization (externalist view illustrating the way in which the region has been affected by globalization)

2. The region as a subject pushing globalization forward (generative view showing how the region is an active agent pushing the process of globalization forward)

3. The region as an alternative to globalization (shows how the region can be understood as posing an alternative to globalization)

IDEALS OF GLOBALIZATION:

1. An Externalist View of Globalization

• Globalization can be understood as a process that transforms the Asia Pacific and South Asia

• Positive side: can be seen as a force for good bringing economic development, political progress, and social and cultural diversity to the region

• Negative side: effects of globalization including its role in economic underdevelopment and the uprooting of local tradition and culture

• Earliest manifestation of externalist discourse: historical narratives about the Western ‘arrival’ to the Asia Pacific and South Asia; Western superiority at the time existed for a variety of reasons, ranging from environmental and ecological advantages to other social, political, and/or cultural characteristics

• Japan, which had been closed off during the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate, was forced open by the ‘black ships’ of Commodore Matthew Perry in the late nineteenth century. Combined with other factors, this brought about the Meiji Restoration and the subsequent political and economic transformation of Japan turning it into a regional and eventually world power.

• Presence of colonialism in the region: beginning from the 1500s e.g. Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Visayan region of what would become the Philippines in 1521 marking the beginning of extended Spanish colonial rule in those islands; Dutch followed in the seventeenth century and slowly strengthened their position in the Dutch East Indies; Europeans brought new economic practices, religious beliefs, cultural values, and political structures that changed the region drastically

• 19th and 20th century: movements for nationalism and independence emerged in many parts of the world including the Asia Pacific and South Asia; e.g. the global experiences of nationalist leaders such as Jose Rizal in the Philippines, who came to imagine themselves as Filipino after being influenced by life in Spain and elsewhere

• Much of the rise in financial investment can also be attributed to the role of International Financial Institutions (IFIs), namely the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF); while initially designed to help rebuild Europe, the World Bank and the IMF soon turned their attention to the developing world including Southeast Asia

• Economic globalization and liberalization has arguably had other broad regional effects as well: in developing countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam, there has been an increase in informal employment such as self-employment, family workers, and informal enterprise workers; often these workers do not have legal contracts and even in places where they do, observers have raised serious concerns about working conditions and safety issues at factories that manufacture goods for Western companies

• Politics has been a defining characteristic of globalization: in the region, the past three decades have witnessed a substantial fall in authoritarian regimes with a corresponding rise in democratic regimes (this has been attributed to a number of factors including rising middle classes, a more globally connected world, and the end of the Cold War)

• One of the most prevalent critiques of globalization has been its effects on ‘culture’: the idea that globalization is a form of cultural Westernization summed up in the term ‘McWorld; the number of McDonalds stores in Asia has grown dramatically over the last several decades, from 951 in 1987 to over 7,000 in 2002

• McDonaldization might also be referred to as ‘MTV-ization’ or ‘Hollywoodization: also referred to changing tastes in areas such as music, clothing, television, and film; Western and particularly American cultural trends have spread globally and increasingly marginalize the way in which local cultural practices are expressed

• Many domestic fast-food chains are also popping up throughout Asia to compete with Western brands including Jollibee in the Philippines, California Fried Chicken (CFC) in Indonesia, MOS Burger in Japan, Jumbo King in India, and so on

• Diets in Asia have been increasingly Westernized: one study in Japan shows that younger people consume more beef and beer than older counterparts and the older people eat more rice, vegetables, and fruits

In sum, one way to view the relationship between globalization and the region of the Asia Pacific and South Asia is as a 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.

2. Generating Globalization: The Asia Pacific and South Asia as a Springboard

• The region is more of an autonomous agent serving as an engine for globalization: the region is also influencing and transforming the nature of globalization itself

• Some have argued that Asia, not the West, was the central global force in the early modern world economy: for much of the early modern era, 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

• Japan: as a resource-poor nation-state 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

• 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

• China: can be seen as pursuing a similar pattern of development today, it is now one of the world's largest importers of basic raw materials such as iron and has surpassed Japan, the United States, and Europe in steel production (the simple scale of China's development is shaping and furthering globalization)

--now surpassed the World Bank in lending to developing countries

• South Asia, in particular 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

• 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 high tech industry based in Silicon Valley, which includes a disproportionate number of immigrants from India and China)

• Remittances from migrants: have also become a core source of income for many of the region's economies (in the Philippines, remittances are now equal to 11 percent of the entire economy)

• 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) (Kee, Yoshimatsu and Osaki, 2010: 32). In other words, the region is both the source and recipient of the influences of the massive globalization of migration.

• Rise of regional free trade arrangements: this regionalism can be interpreted either as a kind of bulwark to globalization or as compatible and even pushing forward the process of global economic integration.

• 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

---can act as a springboard for globalization

• Open regionalism: one of the distinguishing features of regional institutions in Asia Pacific and South Asia, which aims to develop and maintain cooperation with outside actors

--embodied by Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC (formed in 1989) and continues to push for a vision of regional cooperation that is consistent with and advances globalization

--meant to resolve the tension between the rise of regional trade agreements and the push for global trade as embodied by the WTO

• Broad area of culture and globalization in the region: the region is the source of a wide variety of cultural phenomena that have also spread outward to the West and the rest of the world

--Example: there has been a regional and global rise in Korean popular culture dubbed the ‘K- Wave’ that includes the spread of Korean dramas as well as music (K-pop): the smash hit, ‘Gangnam Style’ by Korea pop star PSY, released in July 2012, the song and music video became a viral sensation on YouTube, topping music charts in over two dozen countries including France, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Australia, Norway, and Lebanon, and subsequently won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards

Globalization has not been a one-way street. While there is little doubt that the Asia Pacific and South Asia have very much been on the receiving end of globalization, it is also true that the region is generative of many aspects of the globalization process.

3. The Anti-Global Impulse: Regional Alternatives to Globalization

• The arguments from this perspective see the region as a source of resistance to globalization or to global or Western powers

Example: Japan's colonization of the region and the building of a supposed East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere merely replicated imperial relationships in East and Southeast Asia with new masters. However, it was also arguably a push back against Western imperialism.

--Much of the propaganda during the time centered on the idea of ‘Asia for Asiatics’ and the need to ‘liberate’ the region from Europe.

• Concept of Asian values: Proponents of Asian values such as then-Prime Minister Mohamed Mahathir of 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

(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)

--Asian way tend to respect authority, hard work, thrift, and emphasize the community over the individual (concepts such as individual rights, political liberalism, and democracy are Western concepts)

• Lens of regional arrangements: there are other institutions proposed or implemented at the regional level that are more exclusively and self-consciously ‘Asian’

Examples of Anti-Global Impulse:

1. The East Asia Economic Caucus - EAEC, which is pushed as an alternative to APEC, more precisely an APEC without Western states (the proposed member states were ASEAN, China, South Korea and Japan)

The United States strongly objected and at the time, Japan saw the exclusion of the United States as a threat to their strategic partnership and effectively vetoed the idea.

2. The proposed Asian Monetary Fund (AMF): Japan's Ministry of Finance proposed it in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis (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, and the Philippines. Notably absent from the proposed membership was the United States)

Furthermore, the initial draft proposal suggested that the AMF would act autonomously from the IMF. Although the AMF proposal received nearly universal praise and support among its potential members, 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.

3. Emergence of regional terror networks: such as Jemaah Islamiyah or JI

The origins and the extensiveness of JI are murky, but its main operations have been in Indonesia with apparent links in Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand among others. The alleged goals of JI are territorial and also regionalist, namely to create an Islamic state in Indonesia followed by a pan-Islamic caliphate incorporating Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the southern Philippines. Certainly, this notion of regionalism is much narrower than the broad scope of Asia Pacific and South Asia. And ultimately, the vision of the caliphate is to expand from a regional to a global structure.

The point here is that JI articulated an alternative vision of political and social organization in the region, one that clashes directly with the paradigm of globalization

• Local movements in the region as an alternative to globalization: community currency is an example of a larger trend in self-sufficiency movements that emerged in Thailand after the Asian financial crisis; related initiatives included associations such as traditional herbal practitioners, ‘self-sufficiency’ groups, community owned rice mills, and cooperative shops

• Local production movements are also in line with the overall philosophy of being an alternative to being part of a globalized system

Example: In Japan, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and the Seikatsu Club both encourage consumers to buy ethically and locally : In India, Lok Samiti group advocates local village level education and development and campaigns against the Coca Cola bottling plant in Mehdiganj

There have been a variety of ways in which the Asia Pacific and South Asia region can be seen also as a region that poses an alternative to globalization. For the most part, these alternative paradigms are consciously articulated alternatives to external forces.

References:

• Chapter 13 of textbook: “Globalization and the Asia Pacific and South Asia” by Ehito Kimura

• Shiraishi, Takashi. 2006. “The Third Wave: Southeast Asia and Middle-Class Formation in the Making of a Region.”

• In Beyond Japan: The Dynamics of East Asian Regionalism, ed. Peter Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 237–71.