Washington: More than mere lobbying city for Asian nations

WHAT exactly is Washington, DC? The capital city of the United States of America, to be sure, but beyond that it is also the primus inter pares among new types of "global city" that are emerging and whose complex power structures increasingly challenge the role of traditional nation states.

Among countries that have recognised and exploited this changing anatomy of power none have been more successful than Asian nations, and by no means least Singapore, it seems. They have developed a more sophisticated approach towards Washington than mere lobbying or influence peddling.

This is the core of the argument advanced by Kent Calder, a distinguished international scholar and Asia expert, in his book Asia in Washington. The book (published by Brookings Institution Press) is both an anatomy of Washington itself and of what Prof Calder calls the global "penumbra of power" centred on the US capital.