Welcome to Volume 3 Number 2 of the Journal of International and Global Studies. We continue to increase our subscriptions to this open access online interdisciplinary journal. If you would like to subscribe to the journal, just click on the tab at the top of the page below the journal title. We will be sure to send you the web link to the journal so that you can read and download the essays in accordance with your interests.

This Spring issue for Volume 3 Number 2 features the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary essays and book reviews on globalization topics (defined broadly) that is a predominant theme of the journal.

The lead essay “Returning to the Homeland: The Migratory Patterns Between Brazil and Japan for Japanese-Brazilians” by Yoko Baba and Claudio G. Vera Sanchez from the Department of Justice Studies at San José State University draw on anthropologist George Gmelch’s classic work on the push and pull factors in migration to explore return migration of ethnically Japanese Brazilians back home to Japan. This combination of migration and ethnic data helps illuminate global issues regarding repatriation and other tendencies regarding the various influences that are important in migrant decision-making in this process. The essay contain some surprising results regarding push and pull factors for return migration by the ethnic Japanese in Brazil and provides a platform for understanding global migration trends, as well as ethnicity issues in both Japan and Brazil. The second essay by Ronald Lukens-Bull, Amanda Pandich, and John P. Woods is an investigation of globalization and Islam in Indonesia. These authors utilize Arjun Appadurai’s famed schematic of globalization trends to help debunk the simplistic assumptions of the Huntington “clash of civilization thesis.” The essay demonstrates that globalization is an inherent aspect of Islamic trends in Indonesia and the transnational and transformative process within Muslim communities should not be viewed as ressentiment or as an obstacle for modern developments.

The third essay by Laura Elder “The Sinkholes of Global Finance: Racialization and Cosmopolitanism among Financial Elites in Malaysia” is a unique ethnographic study of global finance among hedge fund managers in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In a careful pioneering example of “studying up”, Elder examined the day to day networking of financial elites in these countries to determine whether “race” or gender played any role in the economic decision making. She discovered that these hedge fund managers promoted the ideals of cosmopolitanism and objectivity in their financial calculations and work procedures, nevertheless, white masculinity did produce structural disadvantages for racialized “others” and women.

The fourth essay by James F. Pasley is a retrospective account of the U.S. Senate roll call vote on the 1991 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and the development of Patriot missile systems at the time of the Gulf War. Utilizing Logit regression statistical techniques, Pasley examines how party identification, ideology, as well as prospects for re-election campaigns in 1992, and how each state would benefit from Patriot missile production had an influence on voting patterns. The analysis demonstrated that while ideology was a predominate factor that influenced voting trends on defense issues, parochial matters such as how different states would benefit from the vote surprisingly was not influential. Pasley reflects on how global and international factors such as the Gulf War in 1991 have had a significant mobilizing effect for the support of defense initiatives, and contemporary global issues regarding nuclear proliferation tendencies and the possible deployment of ballistic missiles within rogue states will undoubtedly influence political decision-making in the future.

The final essay by Miao-ling Lin Hasenkamp is based on an institutional network governance approach to investigate the interconnections between security issues, development, and human rights in respect to both US and German provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) in Afghanistan. This important essay examines the concepts of “human security” and “the right to humanitarian intervention” and peace, nation, and state-building missions, as the basic ingredients in policy commitments in Afghanistan. She argues that the multifunctional PRTs have been trapped within the notions of the “war on terror’ short term strategies and the longterm projects that entail state-building and endurable peace and stability. This has resulted in misconceptions and difficulties for these mission teams. This paper will add to our knowledge of these processes that are ongoing related to international efforts in both the domestic and global affairs in Afghanistan.

We have a number of book reviews for those scholars who have an interest in interdisciplinary research and in globalization and its consequences throughout the world. Again, as we stated in our first issue of the journal, we intend to maintain this standard of generalized interdisciplinary readability for all of our essays and book reviews in future issues of our journal. We hope that you will subscribe to our journal to read future essays. We also invite you to submit essays and suggest possible book reviews for the journal.

Sincerely,

Raymond Scupin, Ph.D. Director: Center for International and Global Studies Professor of Anthropology and International Studies Lindenwood University