This open-access book offers a clear and thorough exploration of Asia's history from an international relations perspective. The book investigates key political, economic, and cultural forces defining Asia. It highlights the historical and current significance of the Indo-Pacific region, particularly shedding light on its strategic role in global geopolitics. Through detailed historical analyses, the authors guide readers toward a comprehensive understanding of Asia's complex international relations, from colonization and imperialism, through the Cold War, into decolonization and the wave of democratization in the region, to the rise of China, unpacking the various dimensions of regionalism in Asia. This book serves as a practical scholarly resource for advanced students, researchers, and lecturers interested in understanding the region's past and its implications for future geopolitical dynamics. It is relevant to historians focused on Asia and to international relations and political science scholars interested in the shift to an Asian world order, from past to present.
Ryo Sahashi is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at the University of Tokyo. Dr. Sahashi specializes in international politics in East Asia. His recent book is US-China Rivalry: A Shift of American Strategy and Divided Worlds (Tokyo: Chuko, 2021) and In a Search for Coexistence: the United States and Two Chinas during the Cold War (Tokyo: Keiso, 2015), and he edits East Asian Order in the Post-Cold War Era (Tokyo: Keiso, 2020). In English, his recent articles appear on Pacific Affairs, China International Strategy Review, Contemporary Politics, and Journal of Contemporary China. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, Wilson Center, Georgetown University, and Seoul National University. He was a Professor at Kanagawa University. He received his B.A. from International Christian University and his Ph.D. from the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo.
Yasuhiro Matsuda is a Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at the University of Tokyo. He received his Ph.D. in law from the Graduate School of Law at Keio University in Tokyo. He spent sixteen years in the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) and Japan Defense Agency (later, Ministry of Defense), as Assistant and Senior Research Fellow. He moved to the Institute of Oriental Culture (later, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia) of the University of Tokyo in 2008. He specializes in the political and diplomatic history of Asia, politics and foreign relations in the PRC and Taiwan, the Cross-Strait Relations, and Japan’s foreign and security policies. He was a Member of the Council on Security and Defense Capability in the New Era, the advisory group of the Prime Minister in 2010. He is the winner of the seventh Yasuhiro Nakasone Award of Excellence in 2011. He has published numerous books and articles in Japanese, English, and Chinese. His most recent publications in English are the following. “China's UN Peacekeeping Operations Policy: Analysis of the Factors behind the Policy Shift toward Active Engagement,” March 2016. “The Taiwan Policy of the Xi Jinping Administration in its Second Term: An Outlook on Cross-Strait Relations in the ‘New Era,’” Society of Security and Diplomatic Policy Studies (SSDP), September 2018. “Changes in the Dynamics of the Taiwan Strait due to Taiwan’s Success in Controlling the Novel Coronavirus,” Asia-Pacific Review, Volume 27, 2020, December 11, 2020, pp. 57-79.
Waka Aoyama is a Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at the University of Tokyo. She was a Visiting Researcher at the Joint Ateneo Institute for Mindanao Economics at Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines, from 2018 to 2019. Her research interests include Davao/Mindanao Studies; Studies on the Sama-Bajau in the urban Philippines; and an oral history of a Cebuano woman living in a low-income area of Davao City. Her approach includes ethnographic fieldwork and oral history. She has published several articles and books in English and Japanese including An Ethnography of Poverty: Socio-economic Life of Five Sama Families in Davao City, Philippines; and An Intimate Journey: Finding Myself Amongst the Sama-Bajau. She is a translator of the Japanese version of Anthony Reid’s A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads. Moreover, she is a recipient of several academic prizes such as the Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Prize, the Daido Life Area Research Encouragement Award, and the Japan Science Promotion Society Prize.
