Presentation
The Asia-Pacific Yearbook was created with the desire to satisfy the growing interest for this region in Spain and Latin America. The main objective of the Yearbook is to offer readers the opinions of leading national and international experts and accompany this with statistics, chronologies and maps which would also allow the Yearbook to function as a tool for carrying out academic studies and analyses of the area.
To achieve these aims, the Yearbook is divided into four thematic sections which complement each other and try to offer a global approach to the zone. The first section deals with aspects of the States' Geostrategy and internal politics , offering an assessment for each of the regions and dealing with topics of special importance in 2004, such as the role of the United States in Asia, the ties between Asia and Europe, and Spain's foreign policy aimed at increasing its presence in the area. The chapter culminates in an account of the East-West Dialogue, which took place in the 2004 Forum in Barcelona; it compiles the arguments of the speakers and encourages us to reflect on them. The second chapter of the Yearbook is devoted to analysing the main topics in Security , focusing especially on the strategies in fighting international terrorism and the many conflicts in the region, paying special attention to the Korean peninsula, the dispute between India and Pakistan, and the challenges in stabilising Central Asia. The third section is dedicated to analysing the current Economic situation in the Asia-Pacific region, an example of heterogeneity with respect to its figures and development levels of its members, and in which some of the richest and poorest countries in the world coexist. It analyses concrete aspects, like the evolution of exchange rates, Asia's demographic horizon and cooperation for development. In particular, it analyses the Chinese and Japanese economies and Spain's economic relations with the region. The fourth chapter analyses the social and cultural aspects of Asia, paying attention to the phenomenon of Asian diasporas in Spain and to the North American experience with these ethnic business people. It also analyses the university courses on Asia offered in Spain, the current presence of the Spanish language in Asia, and an analysis of the view that the Asian countries have of Spain, whether it be through its commercial trademarks or through the media. This chapter also dedicates an article to outlining the debate on the existence of Asian values. Strengthening the will of the yearbook to become a research tool, the preceding chapters are completed with a comprehensive statistical appendix and a section of Country and Territory Files including information on the different regional international organisations, which, in a synthesised way, facilitates the readers' approach to the current situation and can also be used later in studies and analyses of the region. This final section also includes a Database of Grants for studying in the region and a list of the most important institutions in the relations between Spain and the Asia-Pacific region.