Editors’ Note: We received the letter below from our long-time professional colleague and friend, Beryl Radin. Beryl’s letter reflects upon challenges of our becoming coeditors of Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration. She shares advice with us for navigating our new roles. Following the letter, we share our own reflections about how we plan to address issues Beryl raises and our goals for APJPA in the coming years. Dear Jim and Danny, Welcome to the editorial world! Confronting a journal for the first time as an editor is always overwhelming. You want to bring your personal approach to the task. You want it to be distinct but not so idiosyncratic that it seems to avoid major issues of concern to your readers. The title of the journal, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, does suggest that you will be focusing on a distinct geographical area. That gives you both opportunities and limits. Geography itself is not always causative, especially in the world today. You might try to keep a running account of your readers; who are they and what do they anticipate? These questions might have been easier to answer in the twentieth century. Can we assume that twenty-first century globalisation has led to a form of homogenization? That could mean that we should not expect strong differences between Asia and other parts of the world. Asia – like the rest of the world – has experienced wars, presence and loss of resources, colonialism and conflicts that could be identified in other regions around the globe. But are there forces in this region of the world that make these developments unique? Are you likely to find articles that emphasise similarities between the experiences of different countries or are you more likely to uncover strong differences between their stories? Do you want to encourage attention to different political structures, language differences, cultural contexts that emphasise differences rather than similarities? Aren’t you likely to discover that each country defines its politics differently even when they use the same terms? Your public administration colleagues – even when they use the same English words and operate within shared borders – frequently fail to acknowledge that they mean quite different things in their use of language. You may find that the conflict that you discover in your research emerges from internal sources as well as from external pressures. It is hard to establish the differences between the two since these patterns are entrenched in the societies you are examining. There are times when traditional research approaches don’t capture these developments. We often minimise the conflicts built into the data that is available to us that mute turbulence and change. Instead of ignoring these conflicts, it can be useful if members of

中文翻译：

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导航我们新角色的建议

编者注：我们收到了我们长期专业的同事和朋友Beryl Radin的来信。Beryl的信反映了我们成为《亚太公共行政杂志》共同编辑的挑战。她与我们分享有关导航新角色的建议。来信后，我们对如何计划解决Beryl提出的问题以及我们未来几年对APJPA的目标发表了自己的看法。亲爱的吉姆和丹尼，欢迎来到社论世界！第一次以编辑的身份面对期刊总是让人不知所措。您想将自己的方法用于任务。您希望它与众不同，但又不要如此特质，以免避免引起读者关注的重大问题。该期刊的名称为《亚太公共行政杂志》，确实建议您将重点放在不同的地理区域。这给了您机遇与​​局限。地理本身并不总是成因的，尤其是在当今世界。您可以尝试保持读者的流连忘返；他们是谁，他们期望什么？这些问题在20世纪也许更容易回答。我们可以假设二十一世纪的全球化导致了某种形式的同质化吗？这可能意味着我们不应该期望亚洲与世界其他地区之间存在巨大差异。与世界其他地区一样，亚洲也经历过战争，资源的存在和丧失，殖民主义和冲突，这些在世界其他地区都可以发现。但是，在这个地区，有没有使这些发展独特的力量？您是否可能会发现强调不同国家经历之间相似性的文章，还是更有可能发现他们之间故事之间的重大差异？您是否要鼓励人们注意不同的政治结构，语言差异，强调差异而不是相似之处的文化背景？您难道不会发现每个国家即使使用相同的术语也对政治有不同的定义？您的公共管理部门的同事-即使他们使用相同的英语单词并在共享边界内工作-经常也不会承认他们在使用语言时含义完全不同。您可能会发现，您在研究中发现的冲突既有内部原因，也有外部压力。很难确定两者之间的差异，因为您正在研究的社会中这些模式已经根深蒂固。有时候，传统的研究方法无法捕捉到这些发展。我们通常会最小化内置于我们的数据中的冲突，这些冲突可以使湍流和变化静音。除了忽略这些冲突之外，如果 我们通常会最小化内置于我们的数据中的冲突，这些冲突可以使湍流和变化静音。除了忽略这些冲突之外，如果 我们通常会最小化内置于我们的数据中的冲突，这些冲突可以使湍流和变化静音。除了忽略这些冲突之外，如果