APEC and the Construction of Pacific Rim Regionalism
APEC and the Construction of Pacific Rim Regionalism

Author: John Ravenhill

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 9780521667975

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The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping is the first comprehensive economic arrangement to link countries from around the Pacific Rim. Since its establishment in 1989, APEC has graduated from a ministerial-level gathering of nine countries to an institution that stages annual summits, has a permanent secretariat, and whose twenty-one members have committed themselves to establishing free trade in the region. A decade after its foundation, however, members have been increasingly frustrated with the grouping's progress. In this timely book, John Ravenhill examines the reasons for APEC's establishment, its evolution, and the causes of its failures. His conclusions address central questions in international relations about international collaboration and regionalism. The book will interest all those concerned with broader questions about regional economic and political cooperation.

Assessing APEC's Progress
Assessing APEC's Progress

Author: Richard E. Feinberg

Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9812301437

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In its first ten years, what has the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) accomplished? Has the 21-member forum - including the United States, Japan, China, Mexico, and most of Southeast Asia -- fulfilled its promise? To answer these vital questions, leading scholars at APEC Study Centres from thirteen APEC member economies undertook detailed studies of such central issues as trade in services, investment policy, human resource development, food and agriculture, energy, and financial stability.The findings are summarized in a policy report, "Learning From Experience", that has received wide praise and close scrutiny from senior government officials. The report concludes that APEC has successfully established itself as a world-class forum that has contributed to the affirmation of a coherent set of positive ideas. However, the report notes shortcomings in each of the critical areas of trade and investment liberalization, economic and technical cooperation, and institutional structure, and offers remedial policy recommendations to improve APECs future performance. This volume contains both the policy report and the issue studies. It is the product of the APEC International Assessment Network (APIAN), a collaborative, independent project among participating APEC Study Centres to track and assess the design and execution of key APEC initiatives.

India-Japan-ASEAN Triangularity
India-Japan-ASEAN Triangularity

Author: Jagannath P. Panda

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-08-11

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1000624838

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This book focuses on the scope, potential and future of the India-Japan-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trilateral. Through this book, contributors examine the strategic and global partnership between India and Japan and the collaboration with ASEAN. Analysing contemporary strategic issues in the Indo-Pacific, the book takes up the complex link between security and economics. It offers a thorough understanding on how the major Asian powers, India and Japan, cooperate and coordinate with the ASEAN. It delves into few critical questions: Is there a scope for India-Japan-ASEAN triangularity in the Indo-Pacific? Can a formal or institutional cooperation be forged between these three actors? What specific cooperation could India and Japan forge with ASEAN as an institution? To what extent can each ASEAN member independently become a partner with India and Japan? A novel assessment of the post-pandemic economic and political balancing and restructuring, this book will be of interest to Asian politics, international relations, strategic studies, regional organizations in Asia and think tanks specializing in foreign policy, security studies, international trade and economics.

Advances in Induction and Microwave Heating of Mineral and Organic Materials
Advances in Induction and Microwave Heating of Mineral and Organic Materials

Author: Stanisław Grundas

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2011-02-14

Total Pages: 770

ISBN-13: 9533075228

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The book offers comprehensive coverage of the broad range of scientific knowledge in the fields of advances in induction and microwave heating of mineral and organic materials. Beginning with industry application in many areas of practical application to mineral materials and ending with raw materials of agriculture origin the authors, specialists in different scientific area, present their results in the two sections: Section 1-Induction and Microwave Heating of Mineral Materials, and Section 2-Microwave Heating of Organic Materials.

Foreign Relations of the PRC
Foreign Relations of the PRC

Author: Robert G. Sutter

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2013-05-16

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1442220171

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This cogent but comprehensive book examines the international relations of the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949. Noted scholar Robert G. Sutter provides a balanced assessment of the country’s recent successes and advances as well as the important legacies and constraints that hamper it, especially in nearby Asia—long the focus of China’s foreign policy attention. Sutter demonstrates how Beijing has carefully created an image of a China that follows consistent policies based on morally correct principles, but its record shows repeated episodes of sometime surprising change and frequent use of violence, intimidation, and coercion. China’s leaders, he argues, still fail to manage the desire for productive foreign relations with their aspirations to build Chinese security and sovereignty interests. Image-building efforts condition Chinese public and elite opinion to be extraordinarily sensitive, self-righteous, and often alarmist in dealing with the many disputes China has with its Asian neighbors and the United States. Advances the PRC has made in other parts of the world focus mainly on commercial interests, limiting its actual impact on world affairs. Sutter shows readers how to use China’s rise in nearby Asia as a reliable barometer of how important and effective it actually will become internationally.

Three-phase AC-AC Power Converters Based on Matrix Converter Topology
Three-phase AC-AC Power Converters Based on Matrix Converter Topology

Author: Paweł Szcześniak

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-02-28

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1447148967

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AC voltage frequency changes is one of the most important functions of solid state power converters. The most desirable features in frequency converters are the ability to generate load voltages with arbitrary amplitude and frequency, sinusoidal currents and voltages waveforms; the possibility of providing unity power factor for any load; and, finally, a simple and compact power circuit. Over the past decades, a number of different frequency converter topologies have appeared in the literature, but only the converters with either a voltage or current DC link are commonly used in industrial applications. Improvements in power semiconductor switches over recent years have resulted in the development of many structures of AC-AC converters without DC electric energy storage. Such converters are an alternative solution for frequently recommended systems with DC energy storage and are characterized by a lower price, smaller size and longer lifetime. Most of the these topologies are based on the structure of the matrix converter. Three-Phase AC-AC Power Converters Based On Matrix Converter Topology: Matrix-reactance frequency converters concept presents a review of power frequency converters, with special attention paid to converters without DC energy storage. Particular attention is paid to nine new converters named matrix-reactance frequency converters which have been developed by the author and the team of researchers from Institute of Electrical Engineering at the University of Zielona Góra. The topologies of the presented matrix-reactance frequency converters are based on a three-phase unipolar buck-boost matrix-reactance chopper with source or load switches arranged as in a matrix converter. This kind of approach makes it possible to obtain an output voltage greater than the input one (similar to that in a matrix-reactance chopper) and a frequency conversion (similar to that in a matrix converter). Written for researchers and Ph.D. students working in the field of power electronics converters and drive systems, Three-Phase AC-AC Power Converters Based On Matrix Converter Topology: Matrix-reactance frequency converters concept will also be valuable to power electronics converter designers and users; R&D centers; and readers needing industry solutions in variable speed drive systems, such as automation and aviation.