In Planning Asian Cities: Risks and Resilience, Stephen Hamnett and Dean Forbes have brought together some of the region's most distinguished urbanists to explore the planning history and recent development of Pacific Asia's major cities. They show how globalization, and the competition to achieve global city status, has had a profound effect on all these cities. Tokyo is an archetypal world city. Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul have acquired world city characteristics. Taipei and Kuala Lumpur have been at the centre of expanding economies in which nationalism and global aspirations have been...