The _Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars_ has placed online the full text
of a recent symposium on "Asia, Asian Studies and the National Security
State." The symposium consists of a powerful article by Bruce Cumings,
challenging the ideological roots of Asian Studies, with eight responses by
a wide range of people active in the profession. The symposium focuses on
two moments in the creation and development of Asian studies in the United
States. "First, the symposium examines the birth of the field -- during the
height of the Cold War -- as a creation of the national-security state, or
what Cumings calls the state/intelligence/foundation nexus, which
structured, financed, and set formative research agendas and methodologies
at the time. Second, the symposium assesses how the sea changes in the
contemporary Asian regional and global situations relate to emerging
scholarly trends." [MD]