Interrogating the Asian Crisis: Economic Governance Under Challenge

Abstract

The so-called ‘Asian crisis’ at first appeared so incontrovertibly astounding, perplexing and compelling that few fully interrogated it as a result. As the accompanying shock and surprise further undermined other surrounding equilibria, economic governance at large appeared critically challenged. Few anticipated it and many were first quickly seized by it, but still this crisis puzzled, right through into any would-be ‘Asian recovery’ later. Although some regard that recovery as an ‘Asian reply’ to precipitate Western intervention, this paper argues that only better understanding of how any Asian crisis was socially constructed thus will reveal its full nature, course, and consequences generally.