Book Reviews : Asia: The Winning of Independence. Edited by Robin Jeffrey. Macmillan 1981, £15.00 hardback, £5.95 paperback
| Author | Richard Stubbs |
| Published date | 01 April 1982 |
| Date | 01 April 1982 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/004711788200700309 |
2120
agricultural
and
industrial
protection,
and
the
plight
of
the
least
developed
countries.
In
the
section
on
agriculture
it
examines,
inter
alia,
the
Community’s
food
aid
policy
and
has
several
critical
comments
to
make
about
its
quality
and
lack
of timeliness.
The
Community
seeks
to
protect
itself
from
insecurity
and
competition
by
means
of
the
Common
Agricultural
Policy.
It
has
also
sought
international
agreements
to
further
that
stability.
Such
policies
are
not
necessarily
in
the
interests
of
the
growing
number
of
poor
food
importers
whose
interests
lie
very
much
more
in
international
and
national
schemes
for
stock-piling
etc.
Moreover,
the
Community’s
apparent
lack
of
concern
for
the
external
implications
of
its
policies
is
seen
clearly
in
the
adverse
effects
of its
export
subsidies,
especially
for
products
in
surplus
such
as
sugar.
Certainly
the
conclusion
is
inescapable
that
the
reform
of
the
CAP
is
being
discussed
purely
from
national
domestic
perspectives.
The
survey
continues
with
several
papers
on
aspects
of
industrial
protectionism,
including
the
increased
differentiation
within
the
1981
General
Scheme
of
Preferences.
But
the
Community’s
attitude
towards
the
Multi
Fibre
Arrangement
reveal
possibly
most
clearly
the
tougher
position
adopted
by
the
Community
and
its
member
states.
There
is
in
addition
an
interesting
case
study
of
the
effects
(not
always
beneficial
to
the
host
countries)
of
the
’outward
processing’
of
textiles
to
Morocco
and
Tunisia.
Finally,
the
survey
calls
for
a
more
coherent
and
considered
Community
policy
towards
the
poorest
countries,
including
those
such
as
Bangladesh
which
are
not
eligible
for
the
preferential
treatment
accorded
to
the
Lome
signatories.
All
in
all,
the
survey
provides
an
extremely
useful
collection
of
papers
for
both
the
generalist
and
those
with
more
specialised
interests.
The
essays
are
usually
clear
and
concise
even
if,
often
rightly,
they
allow
little
room
for
complacency
about
the
Community’s
policies
towards
the
Third
World.
Asia:
The
Winning
of
Independence.
Edited
by
Robin
Jeffrey.
Macmillan
1981,
£15.00
hardback,
£5.95
paperback.
This
is
a
collection
of
essays
that
allow
for
a
comparison
of
the
way
in
which
five
Asian
countries
with
radically
different
backgrounds
achieved
independence.
Alfred
W.
McCoy
writes
on
the
Philippines,
Robin
Jeffrey
on
India,
Anthony
Reid
on
Indonesia,
David
Marr
on
Vietnam,
and
Lee
Kam
Hing
on
Malaya.
Jeffrey,
as
editor,
contributes
a
short
introduction
and
D.
A.
Low
provides
the
conclusion.
The
book
begins
inauspiciously;
the
editor
obviously
feels
compelled
to
establish
the
book’s
credentials
as
a
student-text.
He
suggests
that
the
book
&dquo;may
be
regarded
as
a
guidebook
in
that
it
attempts
to
point
out
and
describe
the
forces
that
shaped
independence
movements
and
independent
governments&dquo;
(pp
2-3).
Jeffrey
goes
on
to
posit
a
loose
analytic
framework
in
the
form
of landmarks
to
be
found
on
the
&dquo;revolutionary&dquo;
and
&dquo;evolutionary&dquo;
roads-terms
which
are
not
defined-to
independence.
The
framework
is
at
best
only
marginally
useful
and
at
worst
misleading.
But
fortunately,
the
book
has
a
good
number
of
redeeming
features.
On
the
whole
the
contributors,
who
appear
to
be
under
orders
to
open
each
chapter
in
a
uniform
manner
by
alluding
to
a
key
incident
in
their
country’s
history
and
to
make
reference
to
a
particular
set
of variables,
are
too
good
and
too
knowledgeable
to
be
stultified
by
the
constraints
of
the
format
Indeed,
the
reader
who
ignores
the
distractions
will
be
rewarded
by
some
excellent
analyses.
Of course
the
specialist
in
Asian
politics
and
history
will
find
assertions
to
challenge
and
contentious
issues
,which
are
given
too
little
attention
for
his
liking.
For
instance,
gaining independence
involved two
governments,
both
the
colonized
and
the
colonizer,
the
latter
facing
domestic
pressures
of
significance
which
might
equally
have
been
explored
in
some
detail.
However,
each
of
the
main
chapters
is
fairly
comprehensive,
well
written,
and
makes
use
of
a
good
range
of
sources.
The
conclusion
by
Low
places
the
five
case-studies
in
the
broad
context
of
international
trends
and
makes
some
astute
observations
on
the
differences
and
similarities
in
the
five
countries.
Despite
its
shortcomings,
then,
the
book
should be
considered
a
most
useful
introduction
to
an
intriguing
topic.
-..
—Richard
Stubbs
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting