Maps of East Asia -- Complex change and the logics of forms-of-life -- Argument making in social science -- Substantive theoretical traditions -- Livelihood investigated -- The shift to the modern world in East Asia -- Colonialism and modernity : the overall trajectory -- Colonialism and...

Pim de Zwart examines the Dutch East India Company s intercontinental trade and its effects on living standards in various regions on the edges of the Indian Ocean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Contrary to conventional views, De Zwart finds significant evidence of the integration...

The expert contributors shed critical light on how significant developments are impacting on the global system. In particular, they consider emerging forms of global governance, and how the Asia-Pacific as a region, individual countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and the US, and regional...