Rise Of Asia Research Articles

The spectre of Europe: Knowledge, cultural studies and the ‘rise of Asia’

This introduction starts with an exploration of the ambiguity of the idea of Europe. In particular, two tropes – Europe-as-theory and Europe-as-power – continue to haunt knowledge production and cultural studies in Asia. How to proceed? What should cultural studies do if it is to embrace this historical conjuncture of shifting modes of knowledge and power production, how to deal with its Anglocentrism and Eurocentrism? While this special issue allies itself with attempts to unsettle Eurocentrism in knowledge production, it is not making any plea for regionally-rooted practices or theories. It argues for better understanding, dialogue and cross-fertilisation between cultural studies and area studies. The former needs the latter’s sensibility to spatial and cultural context as much as the latter needs the former’s theorisations. This introduction is an opening. It opens up not only to the ensuing articles but, more importantly, an occasion for the inevitable encounter argued for in this special issue.

Evaluation and application of Bayesian multi-model estimation in temperature simulations

Use of multi-model ensembles from global climate models to simulate the current and future climate change has flourished as a research topic during recent decades. This paper assesses the performance of multi-model ensembles in simulating global land temperature from 1960 to 1999, using Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency and Taylor diagrams. The future trends of temperature for different scales and emission scenarios are projected based on the posterior model probabilities estimated by Bayesian methods. The results show that ensemble prediction can improve the accuracy of simulations of the spatiotemporal distribution of global temperature. The performance of Bayesian model averaging (BMA) at simulating the annual temperature dynamic is significantly better than single climate models and their simple model averaging (SMA). However, BMA simulation can demonstrate the temperature trend on the decadal scale, but its annual assessment of accuracy is relatively weak. The ensemble prediction presents dissimilarly accurate descriptions in different regions, and the best performance appears in Australia. The results also indicate that future temperatures in northern Asia rise with the greatest speed in some scenarios, and Australia is the most sensitive region for the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the uncertainty of ensemble prediction, the impacts of climate change on agriculture production and water resources are discussed as an extension of this research.

The Poet as Vanguard: Pablo Neruda and the Politics of the Global South

Pablo Neruda has been described by some as the most widely read poet ever. His output was prodigious and diverse. He was also very much a man and a poet of his time, that of the first three-fourths of the ‘short’ twentieth century, a time very different from our own. That raises the question: Is it possible to split the poet from his politics? A standard recommendation of literary critics is to stick to Neruda’s ‘non-political’ work and forget the rest. Yet, Neruda himself insisted that not only his poetry but also his personal life and his politics formed an indivisible whole. At a time when the rise of Asia and South America is changing the global landscape, it is especially important to come to terms with the central perspective that inspired Neruda’s oeuvre: his identification with the common man and with the South; his anti-colonial spirit (honed during his Asian sojourn) and his extraordinary grasp of what José Martí referred as ‘nuestra América’. This article explores how Neruda provides us with a vocabulary and a grammar that allows us to look at the emerging new world of the twenty-first century with fresh eyes.

Geopolitical shifts: Asia rising, America declining in the Middle East?

This paper explores the implications of the tectonic shifts in the global balance of power marked by the rise of China and India and the relative decline of American hegemony across the Indian Ocean region – bordered as it is by five continents and some 40 countries. Located at the Middle Eastern end of it are the strategic chokepoints of the Bab al-Mandab and the Strait of Hormuz, and at the Asian end the Strait of Malacca. However, while the Middle East and Asia are ever more interconnected across this third-largest ocean (and also along the reviving terrestrial ‘Silk Road’) through trade, finance and culture, the paper does not foresee an imminent confrontation in the Middle East between the rising Asian superpowers and the United States. Nonetheless, it is contended that President Barack Obama's dramatic ‘rebalancing’ project indicates that America intends to intensify its support for the small Asian states worried about China's assertiveness in the East and South China seas, while at the same time insisting that this ‘pivot’ does not mean a diminution of US power in the Middle East. For the time being, it seems that China and India are content to remain ‘free riders’ in the Middle East, uninterested in challenging the United States.

EU–Asia and the re-polarization of the global economic arena

The rise of Asia is a distinctive phenomenon at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Asian economies are growing and catching up with the West. China, the icon of this transformation, aims to...

Global history in the age of crisis: metanarratives of material progress and the rise of Asia

Metanarratives of material progress have been around at least since the time of Smith, Marx and Weber. This article reviews some works in global (economic) history and the history of financial crises and discusses the relationship between the rise of global history and the rise of Asia.

ASIA UNDER LATE CAPITALISM

The hubris over the “rise of Asia” obscures the complexities, contradictions, and struggles that actually characterize the region. Given the economic tumult that has enveloped the West, it is not surprising that we find politicians, pundits, and market players enamored with Asia as a source of economic growth. However, this skewed reading of the region, which regularly dovetails neatly with self-interest and resurgent forms of nationalism, belies material realities. On this count, the region remains home to the majority of the world's poor, increasing levels of inequality and vulnerability (even within “the success stories”), social, political, and racial intolerance, and massive environmental degradation. Moreover, Asia's much-vaunted “charm” (often shorthand for the region's cultural, historical, and natural allure) has been seriously threatened by the accumulation at all costs of late capitalism. The author's photographic work over the past decade has attempted to grapple with and communicate some of these realities—a humble intervention to bring down to earth perceptions of the region in which he lives.

Indonesia in 2012

Two sides of the debate on Indonesia's future turn on the tension between sustained economic growth fueled by demand for Indonesia's natural resources and the highly skewed distribution of wealth. With the Indonesia boosters forecasting a vertiginous rise of Southeast Asia's largest economy, the naysayers point to the deadweights of corruption, lack of transparency, and poor governance. With democratic electoralism revived in a post-authoritarian setting, such issues can no longer be swept under the carpet: they are matched by a relatively open media and burgeoning civil society.

II Book Review: Michael E. Clarke, Xinjiang and China’s Rise in Central Asia, A History.

II Book Review: Michael E. Clarke, <i>Xinjiang and China’s Rise in Central Asia, A History.</i>

Indian Roots of Modern Islamic Revivalism

19 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXVI, No.4, Summer 2013 Indian Roots of Modern Islamic Revivalism** Itzchak Weismann* In the Muslim geographical imagination the Arab world is conventionally regarded as the center. This rests on the fact that the Arabian Peninsula was the cradle of Islam: there at the beginning of the seventh century the Prophet received the call and thence his followers spread the new faith to West Asia, North Africa, and the rest of the globe. This image has been sustained throughout the ages in the consciousness of the umma by the direction of the daily prayer to Mecca (qibla), the annual pilgrimage (hajj), and the privileged status accorded everywhere to the alleged descendents of the Prophet (sada, ashraf). It seems to have been further strengthened in premodern times through students who flocked from all directions to the prestigious al-Azhar university in Cairo, the increasing claims to universality of the Ottoman Sultanate-Caliphate, and the spread of the Arabian puritan Wahhabi creed. This article argues that, contrary to this image, in modern times in some important respects the Indian subcontinent has superseded the Arab countries as a center of the tightening network of the Muslim umma. A relative latecomer to the community of believers, and long at its edge, from the seventeenth century on, and more evidently in the nineteenth and *Itzchak Weismann is Professor of Islamic studies and Head of the Jewish-Arab Center at the University of Haifa. His research interests focus on modern Islam, particularly fundamentalist and radical Islamic movements and Sufism. He is the author of Taste of Modernity: Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus, Leiden: Brill, 2001, The Naqshbandiyya: Orthodoxy and Activism in a Worldwide Sufi Tradition, London and New York, 2007, and co-editor of Ottoman Reform and Islamic Regeneration, London, 2005, and Islamic Myths and Memories: Mediators of Globalization, forthcoming. He also published numerous articles on Islam in modern Syria, the Arab East at large and India. As head of the Jewish-Arab Center, Prof. Weismann works to promote good relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Itzchak can be contacted at Weismann@research.haifa.ac.il **An earlier version of this article was presented in the conference at Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studied in Kolkata and published in Priya Singh and Susmita Bhattacharya (eds.), Perspectives on West Asia: The Evolving Geopolitical Discourses. New Delhi: Shipra Publishers, 2012. 20 1 Richard Bulliet, Islam: The View from the Edge. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, 7-9. twentieth centuries, Indian Islam became a major source of influence for the Arab and other Muslim regions in both terms of reformist thought and new modes of collective organization. The rise of South Asia as a major center of Islamic revivalism took place in the setting of the political and cultural crisis of Indian Islam—from the disintegration of the Mughal Empire to British imperial rule to partition, and was facilitated by the introduction of new means of communication and transnational exchange. Since the crisis was felt earlier and deeper than in the Ottoman Empire and its successor states, the Indian men of religion were quicker and more profound in responding to the challenge and in formulating new ideas and institutions to meet it. These would later be adopted and adapted by their counterparts in the Middle East and other part of the Muslim world. The article begins with a brief theoretical discussion in the Muslim context of the major components of my conceptual framework: the center, the edge, and the network. I then demonstrate the influence exerted in the past two centuries by some major Indian Islamic trends and movements on their counterparts in the Arab world. Their evolution reflects the range of modern Islamic revitalization efforts, from shari’a-minded Sufism through the Modernist and Salafi trends to moderate and radical Islamism. In the last part I consider the factors that led to the ascendency of Indian Islam in the modern era and offer some preliminary observations about the reconfiguration currently underway in the worldwide Islamic network under the impact of globalization. Center, Edge, and Network Two views have been suggested in...

Structures, Shocks and Norm Change: Explaining the Late Rise of Asia’s Defence Diplomacy

Asia's multilateral defence diplomacy is an increasingly important aspect of regional politics and a burgeoning area of interest for scholarship. The creation of the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) in 2002, the inauguration of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) in May 2006 and the arrival of the ADMM-Plus process in October 2010 has seen the establishment of a major new stream of regional dialogue and diplomacy. These arrangements also have a track two multilateral partner--the Network of ASEAN Defence and Security Institutes (NADI), a parallel arrangement to the long-running and influential ASEAN-ISIS. (1) These processes are increasingly attracting interest from analysts, although the body of work remains comparatively small alongside the attention lavished on the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). In 2012 a special issue of the journal Asian Security examined Asia's defence diplomacy, including China's activities in the region and the contribution of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA). (2) Scholars have asked whether there is a Southeast Asian model of defence cooperation that might be emulated or referenced by others. (3) The origins and function of the SLD have been the subject of close academic scrutiny, (4) and there is a growing body of research looking at bilateral defence diplomacy (5) and the connection between bilateral and multilateral arrangements. (6) To date, however, most of this work has been more concerned with describing the evolution of defence diplomacy in the region, its origins and purpose than it has been with considering recent developments in the context of theoretical debates. (7) This article seeks to build on the existing literature by outlining some ways in which Asia's defence diplomacy can inform and challenge contemporary debates in international relations theory. (8) In particular, it looks at the rise of multilateral defence diplomacy against the backdrop of the scholarship concerning norm change and institutional innovation. At its heart are two questions: why was multilateral defence diplomacy so late to arrive in Asia, and what explains its rapid rise? The article is divided into three parts. The first section briefly defines defence diplomacy and outlines the general trajectory of East Asia's defence and military diplomacy in recent decades. The second part explores why defence diplomacy has been a relative laggard when compared to other forms of institutionalized security dialogue, and what explains its recent rise. I argue that explanations that stress the catalytic of external shocks such as the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) or changes in the distribution of power or threats (for example, the rise of China) are underdetermining. Rather, the explanation advanced here focuses on agents and changing norms around multilateral defence cooperation. Using the lens of constitutive localization, I argue that the institutional innovation that has occurred since 2006 reflects a strategic calculation on the part of ASEAN elites, who adopted and adapted ideas initially put forward by outsiders in order to maintain ASEAN's central place in the regional security architecture. Its rise has been helped by the changing role of militaries in some East Asian states and its rapid institutionalization owes much to historical contingency, in particular the interests of two influential ASEAN Chairs in Indonesia and Vietnam. The final part of the article offers a brief assessment of the future prospects and influence of regional multilateral defence diplomacy. Defining Defence Diplomacy Defence diplomacy is a relatively new arrival in the lexicon of Asia-Pacific security. One study of the vocabulary of regional security published in 2008 includes numerous terms for diplomacy and engagement but notably omits defence or military diplomacy. (9) What then does defence diplomacy mean in Asia? Like many expressions in the security studies lexicon, the origin and meaning of the term are contested. …

Regionalism in Competition: EU Experience and its Theoretical Implications for Asian Integration

In parallel of rise of Asia and particularly the PRC, different approaches to Asian regionalism have emerged on international scene, which, according to the author’s detailed analysis, can be divided into four approaches. They were respectively advocated by the US, Japan, the PRC and ASEAN and have been competing with each other in their quest for leadership in Asian integration. In order to measure their potential development and impact on Asian regionalism, the author took reference of the similar competition in the European integration between 1950 and 1974 and its theoretical explanation. The author then formulated a framework of analysis composed of four indicators in the region: power structure, cooperation of transnational elite, potential spillover of the original integrated sector and the institutional building. Having evaluated the four approaches to Asian regionalism with help of these indicators, the author concluded that the US-led Trans-Pacific regionalism still dominates Asian integration for the US is far more powerful than any other individual powers or any coalitions in the region. It could easily mobilize those pro-US elite throughout Asia. The pathfinder and later TPP in APEC could serve as an integrated sector potentially producing spillover in related fields. However, American approach’s Achilles’ Heel is its failure to build up strong institutions owing to Washington’s passive and reluctant attitude towards Asian regionalism. If Washington refuses to adapt itself to the fast evolving Asian regionalism, it could leave place to the PRC or even ASEAN in a long run as China’s economy is fast developing and its political influence is rapidly rising and ASEAN is accelerating construction of its own communities.

Triumph of the West? The politics of legitimacy in Asia

The rise of China has led some commentators to claim that Asia will dominate the twenty-first century. In this article the author argues that, to the extent that countries in the region define and understand their politics in Western terms, the rise of Asia will simply continue the influence of modernity that had its origins in the West. In order to demonstrate this case, the author examines the character of political legitimacy in the region, which is founded on the concept of the state, an idea derived from the West. The modern state form has provided considerable advantages to countries in the region, bestowing international legitimacy on those that claim sovereignty, endowing smaller nations with increased political power in international negotiations, and allowing states to use the idea of non-intervention to shield themselves from international scrutiny. But the concept of the state has also defined new territorial boundaries superimposed on pre-existing political, ethnic and traditional sources of power, thereby creating new problems of legitimacy. In confronting and negotiating these challenges, Asian states have resorted to Western concepts of legitimacy, including democracy, nationalism and performance. Thus, an examination of the politics of legitimacy in Asia reveals the extent to which countries in the region are fundamentally shaped in their architecture of governance and their conception of legitimacy by Western ideas. The success of Asia in the twenty-first century will therefore not introduce a new type of ‘Asian’ global politics, or restore a more ancient kind, but simply confirm the dominance of modernity in shaping thought and practice.

The Changing Landscape of EU-Asia Relations

European Union-Asia relations have been progressively developing over the years. The European Union (EU) today is the leading trade partner of many Asian nations and the spectrum of issues falling under the EU’s bilateral relations with countries in Asia spans far and wide. The EU has been a development partner in Asia for decades and is one of Asia’s largest sources of foreign direct investment (FDI), aid and humanitarian assistance. The EU and Asia interact closely on regional and multilateral issues and within multilateral forums. The EU has even constructed developed deeper relationships with some key Asian countries through strategic partnerships: with China, India, Japan, South Korea and Russia. But potential of overall EU-Asia relations remains far from optimum. The EU has been rather late in recognising the rise of Asia and in gearing itself towards this important development. It has ambitions to play a greater political role in complement to its status as a global trading giant, but efforts fall short. In particular, the EU lacks visibility in Asia commensurate to its actual weight. The ongoing financial and economic crisis has further weakened the EU as an actor in Asia. The changing landscape of EU-Asia relations now depends on two important considerations – a dynamically ascendant and economically integrated Asia, and the US’ renewed focus to Asia. This paper examines the EU’s relations with Asia focussing on the Asian partners of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

Global Health Governance and the Rise of Asia

AbstractA rising Asia brings to the global arena a new set of increasingly influential players with their own values, histories and strategic considerations. It remains to be seen if these shifts will lead to a clash or convergence in the management of global issues. The critical issues include Asian actors’ treatment of sovereignty, their preferences on institutional design, and conceptions of their role in global governance. Global health is fraught with a whole range of collective action problems, which we are failing to address effectively with existing institutional arrangements. This is in part because these institutions are embedded in an anachronistic world order in which Asia is governed rather than governing. Bridging this disconnect will require multiple adjustments. Existing actors involved in setting global health rules will need to adjust to take into account opportunities, constraints and perspectives from the Asian region that may have thus far been neglected. At the same time, Asian state and nonstate actors need to be engaged as co‐shapers of the global order – not just in terms of material contributions to existing initiatives, but also in terms of leadership and ideas for reforming and strengthening current institutions.Policy Implications Sovereignty is asserted in a variety of ways across different global health issues, and policy responses should therefore be similarly diverse, tailored to the specific factors present in each context. Governance structures at the global level are not only shaped by state actors, but can be shaped in part by bottom‐up policy processes. This is a reflection of the degree to which domestic environments allow for non‐state actor participation, as well as how these local actors are connected to transnational networks and discourses. The implementation of global rules remains dependent on local capacity and political will. As such, more donor attention (including Asian donors) could be called to the institutional weaknesses in the Asian region. While regional organizations remain focused on maintaining stability, the FCTC experience has shown that regional distrust can be overcome in the presence of leadership and with inclusive national‐level policy processes. Emerging multipolarity threatens to deepen strategic competition between powerful and rising states, thereby further fragmenting efforts to govern global health. Such competition could be mitigated by empowering a greater range of actors in Asia with interests in advancing health needs. Asian state and non‐state actors have an opportunity to play a bigger role in reforming existing global health governance institutions. One way to facilitate this stronger governance role is to foster inclusive dialogue and constructive debate on the importance of global health governance in the region.

Does Canada need a new Asia policy?

What does Asia's rise mean for Canada? This introductory essay explores some of the economic, political, and military dimensions of Canada's relationship with China and India in particular, and how Canadian foreign policy might be developed to deal with a new reality where the world's economic and political centre of gravity is in the Pacific Ocean, rather than the north Atlantic. It also argues that using an informal “grand strategy” heuristic is a potentially useful way of assessing how to develop foreign policy in a complex and dynamic environment.

The China effect in anxious Europe

The world economy is going through a testing time and Europe’s concerns are understandable. Much attention has been focused on the rise of Asia, especially the economic performance of China during the past decades. There seems to be anxiety about the loss of economic dynamism in the West when compared with the growing confidence in Asia. This essay surveys some of the reasons for anxiety, from those that are common to the global economy to those that arise specifically from the problem of China. It identifies the source as the perceived power shifts in the Pacific and Indian oceans that affect American interests and indirectly those of Europe. While future generations of Europeans need to know Asia better, this is no different from the need for Asians to understand the West, something Asians have been trying to do for over a century. There is no reason why Europeans cannot do that quickly and well.

Eurasian Response to China's Rise: Russia and Kazakhstan in Search of Optimal China Policy

This article examines the complex interplay between the economic motivation of states, their geographic location, geopolitical aspirations, historical experiences, and cultural biases in the context of Russia's and Kazakhstan's relations with China. The concept of Eurasianism, which has been prominent in the political and academic discourse in Russia and Central Asia and is an attempt to reconcile those often conflicting factors, is tested today by the rise of Asia and China more specifically. At the empirical level, the article analyzes China's evolving role and influence in the Eurasian and Central Asian space and discusses Russia's and Kazakhstan's perceptions and responses to China's emerging activism in the region. Russia's and Kazakhstan's future integration in broader Asia‐Pacific regional processes and its forms will depend on how the two countries balance the economic and security dimensions of their China relations.

Imperial Modernity: history and global inequity in rising Asia

In the recently generalised historical coincidence of neoliberal free-market policy trends with accelerating global economic growth and inequality, India and China stand out as world regions with distinctive histories of imperial inequity. The rise of Asia shows that globalisation does not work the same way everywhere. In Asia historical dynamics of imperial territorialism generate inequities that fit global patterns through their absorption and mediation of capitalism. Economic reforms that brought Asia into global leadership ranks express imperial forms of power, authority, and inequity whose long histories need to be understood to make sense of Asia and global capitalism today. This article focuses particularly on India.

Reassessing China: Awaiting Xi Jinping

Reassessing China: Awaiting Xi Jinping