Pacific Affairs

Pacific Affairs
Title	Pacific Affairs
Discipline	Asian and Pacific studies
Editor	University of British Columbia (current editorial board)
Publisher	University of British Columbia Press (historically University of British Columbia)
Country	Canada
Frequency	Quarterly
History	1926–present
Issn	0030-8728

Pacific Affairs

Pacific Affairs is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering politics, society, and international relations in Asia and the Pacific. Founded in the 1920s, the journal has published scholarship connecting regions such as East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Oceania, and the Russian Far East, and has engaged with institutions across North America, Europe, and Asia.

History

Pacific Affairs was established in 1926 amid interwar debates involving figures from the University of British Columbia, scholars influenced by the British Empire, and commentators on the League of Nations. Early contributors included analysts associated with the Royal Navy, the British Columbia press, and scholars engaged with the Treaty of Versailles aftermath. During the Second World War the journal published work tied to discussions about the Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the United States Department of State, while postwar issues reflected scholarship arising from the United Nations era and the onset of the Cold War. In the 1950s and 1960s it featured debates related to the Korean War, the Chinese Civil War, and decolonization movements such as those in Indonesia, Vietnam, and India. From the 1970s onward, editors and contributors connected with institutions like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the Canadian International Development Agency shaped the journal's trajectory. Notable editorial figures have included scholars with ties to the University of Toronto, the London School of Economics, the Australian National University, and the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Scope and Focus

The journal emphasizes interdisciplinary research that intersects with scholarship on the People's Republic of China, the Empire of Japan, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of the Philippines, Commonwealth of Australia, and Pacific Island states including Fiji and Samoa. It routinely publishes work on diplomacy involving the United States, trade discussions connected to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, environmental debates concerning the Great Barrier Reef and Bismarck Sea, and security analyses referencing the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Contributors draw on archives such as those of the Foreign Office (United Kingdom), the National Archives and Records Administration, and the National Diet Library (Japan) to examine topics from the Meiji Restoration era to contemporary policy toward Taiwan and Hong Kong. The journal also hosts historiography on movements tied to the Indian Independence Act 1947, the Philippine–American War, and the Malayan Emergency.

Publication and Editorial Structure

Published quarterly, the journal operates under an editorial board affiliated with the University of British Columbia and peer review panels incorporating specialists from institutions including the University of California, Berkeley, the National University of Singapore, the University of Sydney, and the University of Tokyo. The production process engages copyeditors who have worked with publishers such as the Cambridge University Press and the Oxford University Press. Special issues have been guest-edited by scholars linked to research centers like the East–West Center, the Southeast Asian Studies Program, and the Monash Asia Institute. The journal's governance has involved partnerships with funding agencies such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and collaborations with learned societies like the Association for Asian Studies.

Notable Articles and Contributions

Over its run the journal has published influential articles engaging with events such as the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), analyses of the Asian Financial Crisis (1997), and studies of social change following the Vietnam War. Frequent contributors and cited authors have included scholars associated with the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the Centre for Asian Studies at UBC, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, and the Royal Asiatic Society. The journal has been a venue for early English-language translations and archival revelations concerning figures like Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, Emperor Hirohito, and Sukarno, and for comparative pieces on legal developments tied to the Treaty of Tordesillas legacy in colonial Asia and Pacific jurisdictions. It has hosted debates on development strategies linked to the Green Revolution, critiques of policies shaped by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and cultural studies intersecting with literatures by Rabindranath Tagore, Lu Xun, Yasunari Kawabata, and Kenzaburō Ōe.

Impact and Reception

The journal has been cited in works produced by academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Princeton University, and the University of Oxford, and it has informed policy analysts at think tanks such as the Rand Corporation and the Pacific Council on International Policy. Reviews in periodicals like the Times Higher Education Supplement and the Journal of Asian Studies have noted its longevity and regional breadth. Its readership includes faculty and graduate students from the University of British Columbia, the University of Hong Kong, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and officials from ministries such as Foreign Affairs (Canada) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan).

Indexing and Access

The journal is indexed in databases and services connected to institutions such as JSTOR, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Library of Congress catalog. University libraries at the University of Melbourne, the University of Auckland, the Seoul National University, and the Peking University maintain subscriptions, and the journal is accessible through platforms used by research centers like the Asia Research Centre (ANU) and the Canadian Studies Network. Archival back issues are held in collections at the British Columbia Archives, the Bodleian Library, and the National Library of Australia.

Category:Academic journals Category:Asian studies journals Category:Publications established in 1926