As the worlds most vital region, Asia embodies explosive economic growth, diverse political systems, vibrant societies, modernizing militaries, cutting-edge technologies, rich cultural traditions amid globalization, and strategic competition among major powers. As a result, international relations in Asia are evolving rapidly. In this fully updated and expanded volume, leading scholars offer the most current and definitive analysis available of Asias regional relationships. They set developments in Asia in theoretical context, assess the role of leading external and regional powers, and consider the importance of subregional actors and linkages. Students and policy practitioners alike will find this book invaluable for understanding politics in contemporary Asia.

David Shambaugh is professor of political science and international affairs and founding director of the China Policy Program at The George Washington University. He is also a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution. His most recent book is Where Great Powers Meet: America and China in Southeast Asia.

Map of Asia

List of Figures and Tables

List of Acronyms

Preface to the Third Edition

Part I: Introduction

1 International Relations in Asia: Grappling with Complexities

David Shambaugh

Part II: Legacies and Theories

2 The Evolving Asian System: Three Transformations

Samuel S. Kim

3 Thinking Theoretically About Asian IR

Amitav Acharya

Part III: The Roles of Regional Powers

4 America’s Role in Asia: Challenged Leadership

Robert Sutter

5 China’s Role in Asia: Attractive or Aggressive?

Phillip C. Saunders

6 Japan’s Role in Asia: From Free Rider to Thought Leader

Michael J. Green

7 India’s Role in Asia: A Regional Power with Global Ambitions

T. V. Paul

Part IV: Subregional Actors

8 Southeast Asian States and ASEAN: A Center of Courtships and Cooperation

Cheng-Chwee Kuik

9 South Korea: An Ambivalent Middle Power

Scott Snyder

10 North Korea: Continuity without Change

Victor Cha and Ellen Kim

11 Taiwan: Foreign Relations without Formal Recognition

Shelley Rigger

12 Australasia: Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands

Robert Ayson and Rory Medcalf

Part V: Transregional Linkages and Dynamics

13 The Asian Regional Economy

Edward J. Lincoln

14 The Asian Regional Security Environment

Bates Gill

15 Ethnicity, Religion, Gender, and Human Rights in Asian IR

Rollie Lal

Part VI: Looking to the Future

16 Asian IR in the 2020s: Factors for the Future

David Shambaugh

Index 441

About the Editor and Contributors

David Shambaugh’s third edition of his influential The International Relations of Asia offers a way to think comprehensively about the complex web of diplomatic, economic, and security relations in this century of Asia. Cutting through that complexity to explain the international relations of the world’s largest and most dynamic region is no mean feat. Offering not only clear and integrated analysis, but also a diversity of perspectives, it will prove valuable to students of Asia for years to come.
— Hon. Kevin Rudd, 26th Prime Minister of Australia and Global President of the Asia Society

Shambaugh revised and updated his popular edited collection on Asian international relations, which has served as an excellent student reference for many years. His masterful opus offers a nuanced approach to understanding the regional competition that forces many of Asia’s neighboring nations—China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and even Pakistan—to find ways to coexist peacefully. He identifies five particular variables, whose consequences most merit attention: China’s increasingly assertive “wolf warrior” diplomacy; the US-China power rivalry; the emergence of regional multilateralism; a dangerously nuclear Korean peninsula; and, most worrisome, Taiwan—a ticking time bomb…. Shambaugh wisely suggests changing the approach to Asian international relations from a country-by-country area studies strategy to a holistic analysis of the Indo-Pacific as a whole. Essential. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.
— Choice Reviews

An astute, impressive, masterful capture of the complex geopolitical dynamic that defines Asia today, this is a study distinguished by the in-depth, compelling analysis of seasoned strategic experts. The Indo-Pacific today is the cockpit of intensifying major power rivalry, competing nationalisms and growing militarization—all of which suggest a growing uncertainty about the future of the region. These and a variety of other issues that affect the region, including the key challenge of counterbalancing China, are examined thoroughly and incisively in this study which should benefit university students and policy planners alike.
— Nirupama Rao, former Foreign Secretary of India and Ambassador of India to China and the United States

Want to know where the Asia region is headed? This comprehensive and well-written volume provides a clear picture of its political, economic, and social dynamics by the top scholars in the field. It has justly become the most widely used textbook for Asian international relations courses.
— Susan Shirk, University of California, San Diego; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs

Asia is becoming an ever more central player in global affairs. This volume, under a master editors touch, captures the complexity of changing relationships, and the regions enormous potential.
— Kent Calder, Director, Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins University SAIS