"Jones has written a sophisticated and up-to-the-minute account of the realities of the Pacific Rim, an area that cannot be understood without attending to the cultural traditions he deals with in his first chapter. Just the book for students and businessmen alike, for all who need to get a focus on the countries of the Pacific Rim - culturally mysterious, but economically and politically all too much a part of our world." Kenneth Minogue, The London School of Economics and Political Science "A most impressive study distinguished by the depth and clarity of its grasp of the distinctiveness of the region's political cultures. The difference this makes is most strikingly apparent in his brilliant, revisionist chapter on the political significance of the new middle classes." Professor Tony Woodiwiss, University of Essex "David Martin Jones clearly explains the distinctive precepts and practice of state power in North and South-East Asia and how, after the Cold War, it is the relations between these states that are most in question. His knowledge is wide, his arguments persuasive. This is an impressively comprehensive and reliable introduction to confusing and much contested issues." Geoffrey Hawthorn, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge