Review of Alice Lyman Miller and Richard Wich,
Becoming Asia: Change and Continuity in Asian International Relations since World War II, Foundation Books, New Delhi, 2012, pp. xiv+314, Rs. 995.00 published in
The Book Review, Vol XXXVII, No. 2-3, SAARC Special Issue, February-March 2013, 62-63.
Alice Lyman Miller and Richard Wich both of whom have been lecturing for several years on Asian international relations at various American universities have done yeoman's service to the field of international relations by publishing this masterly account of Asia since the Second World War. Miller and Wich have in a comprehensive manner captured the growth of the region from a geographical expression at the end of the World War II to a region which is seen as a global power center in its own right.
As pointed out by the authors, (pp. 2- 7) there are two simultaneous and interweaving narratives through the course of the book. The first is the Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to enlist the support of the region's countries into their respective blocs. The second narrative is the rising nationalism resulting in the establishment of independent nationstates in the region. In the book, the Cold War and the resultant great power politics as well as rising nationalism are important actors determining the course of events.
The book begins with the wartime conferences which laid down the contours for a post Second World War world. It then moves on to the Chinese Civil War beginning with the differing readings of the event and the consequences of the victory of the Chinese Communist Party. This is followed up by the US occupation of Japan, process of reconstruction which is ably assisted by the `Gift of the Gods' in the form of the Korean and the Indo-China wars. The decolonization process fuelled by nationalism; the US Alliance system and the Sino-Soviet alliance form the bulwark of the next three chapters. The Vietnam War and the strategic realignment heralded by the Sino-American rapprochement is the highlight of the next two chapters. This is followed up with a chapter solely devoted to a phenomenon which has a huge role in propelling the region to the global stage, namely the `Rise of China'. The final and the penultimate chapters of the book look at the future of the region in the background of the Taiwan issue, the continued simmering tensions in the Korean peninsula, the Japanese rise coupled with domestic demands to revisit Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and the tensions in South Asia between India and Pakistan. The authors ponder on how all these issues will impinge on the 'Asian Century'.
One of the greatest strengths of the book is that-given the command of the authors over the subject-it manages to condense differing, divergent readings of an issue very concisely and authoritatively into a few pages. The chapter on the `Chinese Civil War' is a case in point. The authors after providing the reader with an overview of the two differing accounts of the Chinese civil war and its course, conclude (p. 35) that the 'most effective approach to explaining the Chinese civil war is to combine both external and domestic factors, taking due account of the goals and actions of all four actors (United States, Soviet union, Chiang Kai-Shek's KMT and the Chinese Communist Party), not just those of the two domestic antagonists or those of the two external powers.'
India, Pakistan, and China have been dancing a nuclear tango of late, taking steps that have serious implications for the entire region. The countries need to engage if they are to understand the vocabulary and thinking that underpin one another’s nuclear strategies. India will hold elections in 2014. Pakistan has just gone through a democratic transfer of power. China has a new set of leaders in place after its decadal leadership transition. It will be interesting to see whether and how the nuclear signaling game in South Asia changes, once new leadership is in place in all three countries.