âWhat the Far East Means to Americaâ: The Politics of Area Studies during the Interwar Years
In: Journal of American-East Asian RelationsSearch for other papers by Constance Chen in
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Abstract
During the interwar years, Americans redefined the meaning of Asianness amid new geopolitical conditions and shifts in global axes of power, thereby relocating the role that Asia played in the U.S. grand strategy to recalibrate the nation-stateâs position within the international community. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, a consortium of international non-governmental organizations such as the Institute of Pacific Relations and the American Council of Learned Societies collaborated with universities in the production of knowledge. Historians and international relations specialists have touted the creation of area studies at institutions of higher learning at the end of World War ii as one of the principal responses for stemming the proliferation of communism. Instead of focusing on the 1950s and 1960s as the formative era of the academic discipline as many scholars have done, this article illuminates the earlier interconnections between the nascent intellectual fascination with Asia and the reinscription of otherness. Ultimately, anxiety over growing Japanese aggression in the Pacific aided the development of U.S. hegemony as the academic system became part of an inter-imperialist amalgamation of a multitude of economic, intellectual, and political processes and mechanisms that worked together to engineer American influence within and over Asia.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1521 | 477 | 18 |
| Full Text Views | 304 | 25 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 391 | 62 | 0 |
âWhat the Far East Means to Americaâ: The Politics of Area Studies during the Interwar Years
In: Journal of American-East Asian RelationsSearch for other papers by Constance Chen in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
During the interwar years, Americans redefined the meaning of Asianness amid new geopolitical conditions and shifts in global axes of power, thereby relocating the role that Asia played in the U.S. grand strategy to recalibrate the nation-stateâs position within the international community. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, a consortium of international non-governmental organizations such as the Institute of Pacific Relations and the American Council of Learned Societies collaborated with universities in the production of knowledge. Historians and international relations specialists have touted the creation of area studies at institutions of higher learning at the end of World War ii as one of the principal responses for stemming the proliferation of communism. Instead of focusing on the 1950s and 1960s as the formative era of the academic discipline as many scholars have done, this article illuminates the earlier interconnections between the nascent intellectual fascination with Asia and the reinscription of otherness. Ultimately, anxiety over growing Japanese aggression in the Pacific aided the development of U.S. hegemony as the academic system became part of an inter-imperialist amalgamation of a multitude of economic, intellectual, and political processes and mechanisms that worked together to engineer American influence within and over Asia.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1521 | 477 | 18 |
| Full Text Views | 304 | 25 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 391 | 62 | 0 |
