Throughout the study of recorded history historians, especially in modern times, have noted that there seem to be watershed events that have been so significant that they alter the course of history in major portions of the world, if not in the entire world. These events, whether sudden cataclysm or protracted phenomenon, allow historians to divide the time line of human existence into eras each dominated by a different set of political, socioeconomic, and often international determinants that constitute a specific world order or international fabric.

Some will no doubt recall that Roman political, military, and socioeconomic power dominated most of the Western world for 400 years until nomadic invasions from outside and internal alterations of the Roman social pattern slowly but surely led to its demise and the reweaving of the tapestry of the Western world.

Most students of China remember the Taiping Rebellion of the mid-nineteenth century that undercut the power of the Qing Dynasty at the very time that that group of political leaders was being challenged from outside by newly industrialized Western states. This protracted civil conflict eventually led to Chinese subjugation at the hands of the West and eventually a nationalist revolution. Not long after, the Sino-Japanese War and World War II ultimately led to the rise of the People's Republic of China.

In U.S. history, the outcome of the Civil War gradually led to a complete reweaving of America's entire social fabric, especially in the South. On the world stage, World War I and World War II both led to the reordering of the world's power structure and resewing of its social tapestry. Of special interest to this study s the fact that World War II all but totally eliminated the defeated states as world powers for at least a decade and created what appeared to many to be a bipolar world reality commonly called the "Cold War."

Japan and Germany would reemerge in the 1960s and 1970s, as economic powers, but the predominant aspect of the foreign policies of the world's two major military superpowers--the United States and USSR--remained for over forty-five years aimed at how to block the interests of the other throughout the world. This U.S.-Soviet rivalry spawned brushfire wars, Marxist revolutions, and Soviet-American intervention mostly in the emerging former colonial nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

In the late 1980s, the economic failure of Soviet socialism led to a collapse of the Communist states of Eastern Europe and eventually, in the early 1990s, the end of the Soviet Union itself. In the aftermath of this milestone, a new socioeconomic and political structure evolved in Europe and, some have argued, in the world as well. President George Bush declared that the formation of the Gulf War coalition proved that a new world order was being formed.

Since then many historians, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, business experts, military analysts, and others have tried to examine the efficacy of this declaration of a "new world order." While it seems clear to many observers that Europe and the West have sewn a new fabric, many are not so sure that this has been a worldwide phenomenon. It is a hotly debated issue these days, and it is the focal point of this book. In the case, the authors and editors of Weaving a New Tapestry have chosen to examine whether or not the "new world order" has included Asia or at least materially affected Asia. These scholars of the Asian continent have written fourteen chapters covering various aspects of East, North, Southeast, and South Asian society, economics, politics, women's rights, human rights, pedagogy, and and international relations to see what, if any, effects the fall of the Soviet Union has had on these nations.

We would like to dedicate this book to those who study the history and circumstances of the world and do not remain tied to their own little corner of this planet. We especially wish to recognize those who care for their fellow man who travel to far away places not to plunder or to exploit but to hold out a helping hand and learn from their fellow human beings. Not all of us can be Mother Teresa nor should we be. But realizing that there is a great wide world out there is the first step in understanding the wonder of creation and that the true beauty in the world's tapestry is in its marvelous diversity.

Go to the top of the page