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Notes from the Editors' Desk

Dear Reader,

The third issue of the Asian Journal of Public Affairs has once again been able to attract a range of contributions from current graduate students across the world. This issue highlights topical policy concerns pertaining to Asia. We hope that our new selection of articles will put forward innovative perspectives on current issues and still provide workable policy recommendations for an interconnected and multipolar world.

Our third issue opens with a commentary by Dr. Stephen Cohen, a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, who critically examines the role of the international community in Pakistan’s political reformation in his piece Pakistan’s Second Last Chance. At the same time, Pakistan’s neighbour India is facing obstacles in ensuring that the benefits of its impressive economic growth are reaching all ranks of society. In the second commentary in this edition, Dr. S. Narayan, a Senior Visiting Fellow and Head of Research at the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore, highlights the challenges faced by India in India’s Economy: Constraints to Inclusive Growth.

While it appears that change is often slow to come, significant policy shifts are nevertheless possible, as one can see when examining the change in policy that led to the Removal of the Casino Ban in Singapore. Indeed, the process by which change is precipitated and inhibited in the context of globalization, is a central theme of this issue. The media in particular could play a crucial role in instigating reforms in Asia, yet in a significant number of countries the state continues to retain its influence over the press. A look at whether State owned Media can effectively Monitor Corruption in Vietnam fits squarely into this debate. Despite the need for more government openness and flexibility, international non-state actors are increasingly circumventing and transcending the state as agents of policy reform. Analyzing Global Governance and the Rise of NGOs is therefore a timely task for policymakers of all levels. Since environmental degradation, a traditional concern for nongovernmental organizations, can only be mitigated through the consistent application of small-scale, incentives-based projects such as Streamlined Life- Cycle Assessment we also feature the discussion of such a practical cost-benefit framework in this volume.

We hope our third issue will be of interest to you and that it will spark new debate on the topics been raised. We would once again like to thank those who have provided their invaluable advice and guidance. We are especially grateful to our faculty advisors, Prof. Mukul Asher and Assoc. Prof. Darryl Jarvis and to our mainstay, Ruth Choe.

Yours Sincerely,
The AJPA Editorial Board
July 2008

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COMMENTARIES

Pakistan’s Second Last Chance
Stephen P. Cohen

India’s Economy: Constraints to Inclusive Growth
S. Narayan

ARTICLES

Can a State-Owned Media Effectively Monitor Corruption? A Study of Vietnam’s Printed Press
Catherine McKinley

Multiple Streams of Change: Explaining the Removal of Singapore’s Casino Ban.
Using John Kingdon’s Agenda-Setting Framework
Wee Ming Ting

Global Governance and the Rise of NGOs
Shaugn McArthur

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POLICY ANALYSIS EXERCISE ABSTRACT

LCA for SMEs: Streamlining Life Cycle Assessment for Small Scale Projects
Anthony D‘Agostino

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