Southern Asia-pacific: the region in turbulence

The book in your hands is the first of the Southern Asia Pacific Trilogy prepared and compiled from the well researched papers by distinguished scholars and political thinkers present at the International Conference on Southern Asia-Pacific held in New Delhi recently. That the South Asia-Pacific is in ferment, few will doubt; that we need to know more about this region, the region that is a curious mixture of the traditional and the modern, that has witnessed fighting scenes of vio lence, that has been the No. 1 target of nuclear bombing with two (and mercifully only two) drops of annihilation on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and give it a closer look, all will agree. Seen in the darkness of the world situation, abolition of N-weapons has become the most serious issue that humankind has faced in the million years of history. Today, day in and day out, we are threatened with "omnicide", as a Japanese scholar has put it. Hence the craving for peace and security. If N weapons are outlawed, the South Asia Pacific ferment can undoubtedly develop into a healthy growth and this depends on the consolidated efforts of all the countries of the region.

Crowded in its pages is a virtual mine of informa tion on all these aspects, provided by experts from Aus tralia, Japan, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Ger man Democratic Republic, Cuba, Sri Lanka and India who have drawn a clear portrait of the present day South Asia Pacific. Out of these studies, limpid and challenging, many questions crop up crying for answers.
Even the most arduous reader of books on the subject will discover much in these pages that is new, meaningfully expressed, that brings about the essence of the region. Here, in short, is a book for all who wish to see South Asia Pacific clearly and see it whole.