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The Pacific Century (and the associated term Asia-Pacific Century) is a term that has been used to describe the 21st century through analogy with the term American Century. The implicit assumption underlying the usage of the term is that the 21st century will be dominated, especially economically, by the states in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular China, Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan, the ASEAN members (particularly Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore), Australia, Russia, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. This idea can be compared to the historical Eurocentric/Atlantic viewpoint, which has dominated for the past two centuries. The term Asian Century is a more popularized term, shifting greater emphasis towards Asia, especially on the potential superpowers of China and India. Cities in those countries, such as Tokyo, Mumbai, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Delhi and Bangkok are increasingly gaining power as financial centres, displacing cities in Europe. However, critics of this associated term believe it incorrectly describes the 21st century and overstates the importance of the states around the Indian Ocean. Up until 2011, this was proving to be true, as India had shown very promising growth, despite nagging infrastructure concerns. But with the continual unrest in Palestine and associated ultra critical Suez Canal, the Euro crisis, along with India's and Brazil's growth concerns, and Russia's new look East policy, the Pacific Century is in fact a more accurate term than the Asian Century. Note the United States, Canada, and Mexico in particular are dual powers, both Pacific and Atlantic, however the West Coast of North America stands to benefit the most from the Pacific Century vis-à-vis the East Coast of North America. A 10-hour documentary entitled ''The Pacific Century'' was aired on PBS in 1993, which covered the history of modern Asia and the West, as well as the future of the region (). In a November 2011 article for ''Foreign Policy'', the term was recast as America's Pacific Century by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to succinctly describe the leading US foreign-policy goal of the 21st century. Acknowledging discussion of the rising threat to American power in the region from rapidly developing Pacific nations, most obviously China, Clinton said: "One of the most important tasks of American statecraft over the next decade will therefore be to lock in a substantially increased investment—diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise—in the Asia-Pacific region."〔 The American pivot has been dutifully trailed by their British partner; see .〕 President Barack Obama also toured various countries that month to bolster security alliances and work on a new trade bloc called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, from which China is excluded. The US was ASEAN's largest trading partner in 2004; by 2012 China was the biggest trading partner of ASEAN by far, as well as the biggest of Japan, Korea, India and Australia. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pacific Century」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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