Author Description

Five trends in the global political environment that affect the Asia-Pacific are: globalization; pulls of integration and disintegration; American dominance and leadership in the world; the emergence of new powers; the proliferation of nuclear states, weapons of mass destruction and the technological advances in the weapon delivery systems. These trends have significant implications for global finance, and the conduct of business in Asia. Both the businessperson seeking an opportunity and the academic doing research would find it useful to have an understanding of the various perspectives of Asia -- its economic recovery, changing political landscape, progress of economic reform, and the impact of the telecommunication and digitisation revolution. Formerly the Year in Review series, Perspectives endeavours to provide more forward-looking, instead of backward-looking, insights into developments in the international and Singaporean environments. Perspectives: 2000 and Beyond is a collection of papers that were presented at a conference in January organised by The Institute of Policy Studies, a public policy think-tank in Singapore, to celebrate the new millennium.