The Making of the Asia Pacific. Knowledge Brokers and the Politics of Representation

The Making of the Asia Pacific: Knowledge Brokers and the Politics of Representation is about the power of narratives in shaping the 'world' of the post-cold war Asia Pacific. Laden with economic, social and political meaning, policy and academic discourses authorise and provoke certain understandings about the region, while preventing counter-narratives from emerging. By no means free-floating, they are tied to the particular interests and ideologies of their narrators and users. This book critically examines the purposes, practices, power relations and protagonists behind policy networks such as the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific and the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council. In decoding the conventional lore advanced by established international relations narratives on the Asia Pacific, The Making of the Asia Pacific points the way to a more democratic knowing, doing and being vis-à-vis the region.

About the Author
See Seng Tan is associate professor and deputy director of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at the Nanayang Technological University in Singapore.