''Shastry's polemic cites extensive research from experts and exploits the author's knowledge of Asia and his connections to the region's elite, with whom he rubs shoulders at Davos and other summits. What shows through in the book though is Shastry's compassion for the continent's ordinary people.'IMF F&D MagazineAsia has been the greatest show on earth since Japan's rise from the ashes of World War II, accompanied in successive decades with the emergence of the Asian tigers, and eventually the two giants China and India. The Asian miracle has few precedents in the modern era, with billions lifted from poverty in a generation. The region's openness to trade and investment aligned perfectly with the tailwinds of globalisation. However, in recent years Asia has become a victim of its own success with commentators not differentiating between a utopian high-income Asia and a dystopian middle- and low-income Asia, where a significant majority of the region's population live. Asia today can be divided into countries which have a lot, have a little, and have none. The continent's dream run is also coming to an end as Covid-19 exposes sharp weaknesses in state capacity and structural challenges like the U.S.-China trade war is putting globalisation into reverse gear, jeopardising the region's hard-earned economic success. Asia's growth-obsessed policymakers have also ignored social pressures from the impact of technology on jobs, rising inequality, fabulous wealth accumulation by a favoured billionaire class, a deepening demographic divide, climate distress, and gender disparity, which threaten to destabilise the region's famed cohesiveness. In his penetrating new book, well-known Asia expert Vasuki Shastry argues that while Asia's reckoning may have been the subject of speculation before the pandemic, Covid-19 has made that inevitable. Inspired by Dante's Inferno, Shastry takes readers on a journey through modern Asia's eight circles of hell where we encounter urban cowboys and cowgirls fleeing rural areas to live in increasingly uninhabitable cities, disadvantaged teenage girls unable to meet their aspirations due to social strictures, internal mutiny, messy geopolitics from the rise of China, and a political and business class whose interests are in conflict with a majority of the population. Shastry challenges conventional thinking about Asia's place in the world and the book is essential reading for those with an interest in the continent's future.Related Link(s)

Gulf stability is coming to play a larger role in the foreign policy calculus of many states, but the evolving role of Asian powers is largely under-represented in the International Relations literature. This volume addresses this gap with a set of empirically rich, theory driven case studies written by academics from or based in the countries in question. The underlying assumption is not that Asian powers have already become important security actors in the Gulf, but rather that they perceive the Gulf as a region of increasing strategic relevance. How will leaders in these countries adjust to an evolving regional framework? Will there be coordinated efforts to establish an Asian-centered approach to Gulf stability, or will Asian rivalries make the region a theater of competition? Will US–China tensions force alignment choices among Asian powers? Will Asian states balance, bandwagon, hedge, or adopt some other approach to their Gulf relationships? These questions become even more important as the western boundaries of Asia increasingly come to incorporate the Middle East. The book will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of International Relations, Security Studies, and International Political Economy, as well as area specialists on the Gulf and those working on foreign policy issues on each of the Asian countries included. Professionals in government and non-government agencies will also find it very useful. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) has become the noun, verb, and adjective of the modern business era. Faced with societal and regulatory pressure, big business in America, Asia, and Europe has been forced to define and articulate ESG goals to combat climate change and save the planet.

This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of US foreign policy throughout the Indo-Pacific. Home to around 60 percent of the world’s population; most of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies; around half of the world’s states with full nuclear capabilities; and a complicated web of unresolved tensions, disputes, and conflicts, the Indo-Pacific is arguably the most diverse, dynamic, and contested region on Earth. US strategy there has evolved over centuries, with its physical presence going broadly unchallenged since at least the middle of the last century. However, the rapid development and expanding influence of China – alongside the growth of India, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and others – as well as political and economic crises and disruptions within the United States itself, mean that in recent times the US has come to occupy a newly uncertain position and perceive a range of highly unfamiliar challenges. To explore how the US has managed, and continues to manage, its regional history, and how it approaches the modern-day landscape of an Indo-Pacific only recently normalised within international political discourse, the book contains 33 newly commissioned chapters from leading experts in the field. It does so partly with help from the more traditional realms of International Relations theory as well as more critical realms. It also unpacks US policy and strategy as it pertains to regional governments, states, and multilateral institutions, as well as to pressing issues including inter-state security, human rights, trade, artificial intelligence, and cyber strategy. It does so in four parts: History of the US in the Indo-Pacific Theorising US Policy and Presence in the Indo-Pacific The US and Indo-Pacific States and Institutions The US and Indo-Pacific Issues The book is designed to be of interest to students and scholars of the US in the Indo-/Asia Pacific; the international relations of the Indo-/Asia Pacific; and US foreign policy.

Asia was probably the biggest economic sensation of the post-war decades. The breathtaking success of Japan was followed by a remarkable rise of "four tigers", then ASEAN founder states and then China. The Asian miracle became a commonly accepted definition of this success. In the late 1970s and especially 80s it became clear that the balance of power in the world had changed. Politicians, businessmen, scholars began to talk about "the new Asia Pacific age" and Asian economic model, different from and, maybe, even superior to Western capitalism. However, in 1997-98 the Asian economic crisis came and made the region a sick man. Six years before that Japan, the regional powerhouse entered more than a decade-long period of stagnation. The miracle was over. However, the crisis was overcome within a surprisingly short period of time. Naturally, the question arises: What now? What is going on in the region after the miracle and after the crisis? What is today's face of Asian capitalism and how should we view its performance? Readers interested in regional developments will find a lot of literature about miracle decades and crisis years. However, few analysts have addressed the challenging questions addressed in this book. The authors vividly show that Asian capitalism is undergoing a radical structural transformation. These changes are directly affecting its key institutions: governments, companies, labor relations, etc. As a result Asian economic systems are becoming much closer to the Western-style, especially Anglo-Saxon capitalism, though the region retains some important specific features, especially regarding business culture. This book is a must for business people worldwide, for all those who study the region in colleges and business schools, for people engaged in various international activities and, finally, for all those who want learn more about our world at the dawn of the new century.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

A “remarkable” history of the great river of Southeast Asia (Jill Ker Conway, author of The Road from Coorain). The Mekong River runs over nearly three thousand miles, beginning in the mountains of Tibet and flowing through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam before emptying into the China Sea. Its waters are the lifeblood of Southeast Asia, and first begot civilization on the fertile banks of its delta region at Oc Eo nearly two millennia ago. This is the story of the peoples and cultures of the great river, from these obscure beginnings to the emergence of today’s independent nations. Drawing on research gathered over forty years, Milton Osborne traces the Mekong’s dramatic history through the rise and fall of civilizations and the era of colonization and exploration. He details the struggle for liberation during a twentieth century in which Southeast Asia has seen almost constant conflict, including two world wars, the Indochina War, the Vietnam War, and its bloody aftermath—and explores the prospects for peace and prosperity as the region enters a new millennium. Along the way, he brings to life those who witnessed and shaped events along the river, including Chou Ta-kuan, the thirteenth-century Chinese envoy who recorded the glory of Angkor Wat, the capital of the Khmer Empire; the Iberian mercenaries Blas Ruiz and Diego Veloso, whose involvement in the intrigues of Cambodia’s royal family shook Southeast Asia’s politics in the sixteenth century; and the revolutionaries led by Ho Chi Minh, whose campaigns to liberate Vietnam from the French and unify the nation under communism changed the course of history. “[A] pathbreaking, ecologically informed chronicle . . . A pulsating journey through the heart of Southeast Asia.” —Publishers Weekly