Daniel C. Matuszewski - Böcker

In examining the economic and social reforms of Gorbachev's Soviet Union, the contributors to this new study provide a broad portrait of the state of current soviet relations with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, the prospects for change, and the perceived role of the Soviet Union in that change. Leading established scholars and specialists from the countries of the Asia-Pacific region study this new Soviet phenomenon and evince a mixture of enthusiasm and apprehension about Moscow's new policy overtures to the region.Mikhail Gorbachev's speech in the Soviet Far East city of Vladivostok on July 28, 1986, was widely read and commented upon throughout East and Southeast Asia, and raised many unanswered questions: How much has the Soviet Union really changed? Will China, the principal target of Soviet overtures, respond positively and, if so, what will the implications be for the rest of the region? What do these sweeping changes mean for the region in practical terms? The Soviet Union and the Asia-Pacific Region considers these questions and offers insight and provocative commentary on the current attitudes of the many Asia-Pacific countries toward the Soviet Union.

Inner Asia - in premodern times the little-known land of nomads and semi-nomads - has moved to the world's front page in the 20th century as the complex struggles for the future of Afghanistan, Soviet Central Asia, Tibet and other territories make clear. But because Inner Asia as a whole is divided among several states politically and among area specialists academically, broad perspectives on recent events are difficult to find. This work treats the region as a single unit, providing both an account of the region's past and an analysis of its present and its prospects in a thematic, rather than a strictly country-by-country manner.