Description: A lasting and stable world order, he argues, cannot rely just on governments and power politics; it depends upon the open exchange of cultures among peoples in pursuing common intellectual and cultural interests.
Brief description: Akira Iriye is professor in the Department of History at Harvard University. His many books include The Globalizing of America, Across the Pacific: An Inner History of American-East Asian Relations, and China and Japan in the Global Setting.
Review Quotes: Akira Iriye discusses the origins of what he calls 'cultural internationalism' and the tensions that arose in the countervailing forces of nationalism prior to both World Wars. To prevent a resurgence of the militarism of cultural nationalists, which has wrecked such havoc in this century, he makes a compelling argument about the need to tear down cultural walls rather than build them up.
--International Journal