Home | Pacific Affairs

The March issue of Pacific Affairs consists of five articles. The first of these, written by Xiaowei Zang, is titled, “Uyghur Support for Economic Justice in Ürümchi.” Here the author examines the economic beliefs of the Uyghur of China’s Xinjiang. Using data from a survey conducted in Ürümchi in 2007, the author shows that the vast majority of Uyghurs endorse economic communitarianism, a support that is related to Uyghur consciousness.

In “Becoming a Migrant: Vietnamese Emigration to East Asia,” authors Danièle Bélanger and Hong-zen Wang examine how Vietnamese migrants from low socio-economic backgrounds navigate the process of “becoming migrants” to Taiwan, South Korea or Japan. Based on five years of fieldwork, the authors argue that the emigration process is key to furthering our understanding of the meaning of migrant categories, the role of networks and the link between emigration and migration outcomes.

In their article, “Surviving the Hard Times: Adjustment Strategies of Industrial Workers in a Post-Crisis North Korean City,” authors Andrei Lankov, In-ok Kwak, Seok-hyang Kim, and Choong-bin Cho examine the coping strategies of many of North Korea’s workers in the wake of the 1990s’ collapse of North Korea’s Leninist centrally planned economy, a collapse that resulted in a new economic environment that resembles in many regards that of post socialist Eastern Europe.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Muhamad Takiyuddin Ismail and Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid examine in their article, “Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Malaysia’s Neo-Conservative Intellectuals,” the failure of the political reforms of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia’s fifth prime minister (2003-2009), showing how this failure was due not only to the opposition of reactionary elements within the UMNO-based interlocking system, but also to weaknesses in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s support system.

Timor Archives, building the archival records of Falintil, the Timorese Resistance Army

Finally, in “Britain in the Aftermath of the Indonesian Invasion of Timor, 1977: The Fiction of Neutrality and the Reality of Silent Help,” author Anna Costa fills a gap in the literature of international involvement in the aftermath of the Indonesian invasion of Timor-Leste by providing detailed documentary analysis of British conduct and motives. She examines the particulars of British complicity by focusing on three main areas: the handling of the Dunn Report, the policy of aid to Jakarta, and finally, London’s policy of abstention in the United Nations.

For additional details we invite you to visit our Current Issue Page.

For abstracts in Chinese translation – 摘要

Mission Statement

Pacific Affairs is an interdisciplinary journal committed to advancing empirical and conceptual knowledge in the field of Asia Pacific-focussed area studies. We view area studies as combining serious commitment to original research on specific regions and countries in Asia and the Pacific with insights and analytical rigour derived from multiple disciplines and various theoretical perspectives.

2011 Journal Citation Report Impact Factor

Impact Factor 0.548 (15 out of 66 Area Studies journals) – cites in 2011 to articles published in 2009 and 2010.

5-Year Impact Factor 0.639 (17 out of 66 Area Studies journals) – cites in 2011 to articles published from 2006 to 2010

Immediacy Index 0.400 (5 out of 66 Area Studies journals) – cites in 2011 of articles published in 2011

Note: We maintain a sustained and in-depth intellectual and administrative interest in the various debates concerning the uses, meanings, and limits of bibliometric indexes such as the annual JCR reports. We list the information above not as an unthinking endorsement of the use of these indexes to define notions of “quality,” but as information that forms part of a larger set of ongoing attempts to map the patterns and understand the meanings of scholarly communications in the digital age. The view of Pacific Affairs is that the 5-Year Impact Factor (regardless of our absolute and relative numbers) is the most significant measure, given that we aspire to publish articles that based on the depth of empirical research and the clarity of the arguments will ideally retain their relevance for at least five years after their publication.

About Us

Pacific Affairs is a peer-reviewed, independent, and interdisciplinary scholarly journal focussing on important current political, economic and social issues throughout Asia and the Pacific. Each issue contains approximately five new articles and 40-45 book reviews. Published continuously since 1928 under the same name, Pacific Affairs has been located on the beautiful campus of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, since 1961. The journal is committed to providing to the scholarly community and the world at large high quality research on Asia and the Pacific that takes readers beyond the headlines and across multiple disciplines.

Indexing

Pacific Affairs is indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), MasterFILE Premier, Public Affairs Information Service and PAIS ARCHIVE, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, World Affairs Online and Bibliography of Asian Studies. We are both indexed and have abstracts of articles appear in Web of Science, GEOBASE, Canadian Periodical Index, Academic Search Complete, CBCA Complete, Historical Abstracts, International Political Science Abstracts, America: History and Life, Public Administration and CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Ingenta is the electronic provider for our online subscriptions. Pacific Affairs was selected as one of the first journals to join the JSTOR archives at their inception and has a four year moving wall.