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Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs: Aug 21, 2007 10:35am 1 review asia, globalization, geo-politics
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IH22Ak03.html; Rising powers have the US in their sights
in AsiaTimes by Dilip Hiro the author of Secrets and Lies: Operation Iraqi Freedom and, most recently, Blood of the Earth: The Battle for the World's Vanishing Oil Resources, both published by Nation Books.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States stood tall - militarily invincible, economically unrivaled, diplomatically uncontestable. and the dominating force on information channels worldwide. The next century was to be the true "American century", with the rest of the world molding itself in the image of the sole superpower.
Yet with not even a decade of this century behind us, we are already witnessing the rise of a multipolar world in which new powers are challenging different aspects of US supremacy - Russia and China in the forefront, with regional powers Venezuela and Iran forming the second rank. These emergent powers are primed to erode US hegemony, not confront it, singly or jointly.
When viewed globally and in the great stretch of history, the notion of US exceptionalism that drove the neo-conservatives to proclaim the Project for the New American Century in the late 20th century - adopted so wholeheartedly by the Bush administration in this one - is nothing new. Other superpowers have been there before, and they too have witnessed the loss of their prime position to rising powers.
No superpower in modern times has maintained its supremacy for more than several generations. And however exceptional its leaders may have thought themselves, the United States, already clearly past its zenith, has no chance of becoming an exception to this age-old pattern of history.
Rising powers have the US in their sights
An excellent article on the presently transitioning geo-politics. To measure the importance of this geo-politic transitioning it has to be placed in the larger context of the peak resources (oil, Phosphorous) + the myriad of side-effects of modernity (- an economically globalized world in a largely non-globalized political context. - a societal atomization. - an uncontrolled growth of the human population. - a stark loss of diversification in term of living species. - an accelerating climate change. - the poisoning of land and water). When integrated in such a larger context the present transitioning of geo-politics indicates an increasing risk of conflicts erupting in the not so distant future. It is what emerges out of the interactions between geo-politics + peak resources + side-effects of modernity that shall decide sooner or later the fate of humanity.

The allure of the Chinese model - Opinion - International Herald Tribune: Nov 1, 2006 3:35pm 1 review asia, globalization, modernity
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/01/opinion/edafrica.php; The allure of the Chinese model in the Int'l Herald Tribune by Zhang Wei-Wei ( senior research fellow at the Center for Asian Studies in Geneva and a visiting professor at Tsinghua and Fudan Universities, China. He worked as a senior English interpreter for Deng Xiaoping and other Chinese leaders in the mid-1980s.) Constant experimentation. All changes in China first go through a process of trial and error on a small scale, and only when they are shown to work are they are applied elsewhere. Gradual reform, not big bang. China rejected "shock therapy" and worked through the existing, imperfect institutions while gradually reforming them and reorienting them to serve modernization. A developmental state. China's change has been led by a strong and pro-development state that is capable of shaping national consensus on modernization and ensuring overall political and macroeconomic stability in which to pursue wide-ranging domestic reforms. At the end of the day, what matters most is finding the best ways to tackle the many challenges facing mankind. The Chinese model, however imperfect, has enriched the world's political discourse and wisdom and hence expanded the policy options. URL: The allure of the Chinese model
It's not so much that China has a solution for economic development, it's more a question of attitude. The Chinese take first and foremost a pragmatic stand (solution to be found according to the nature of the problem) while Westerners tend to have ideological 'a-priori's' ('we good you bad', democratization, opening-up,...) So in conclusion what China offers to the rest of the world is a working example of the staying power of a non-ideological attitude...

ResearchSEA - Asia Research News: Aug 27, 2006 9:49pm 2 reviews asia, news, future, globalization
http://www.researchsea.com/; News And Research Roundup from Asia Tremendous source of news about all that matters in Asia. via ReasearchBuzz, in Research Asia """ ResearchSEA is a new resource providing both information about research coming out of Asia and pointers to experts in Asia. It's available at http://www.researchsea.com . From the front page, available research is broken up into several topics, including science, medicine, culture, technology, people, and business. """ URL: News And Research Roundup from Asia

Asia Times Online :: China News - A symphony of civilizations: Aug 16, 2006 2:05pm 3 reviews asia, europe, china, geo-politics, worldviews
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HH12Ad02.html; A symphony of civilizations Much truth here about geo-politics or international relations. I had (and this reinforced with time) the same feeling as Jean Monet about the Chinese: "I found myself face to face with men who seemed far more subtle and intelligent than Westerners". Yes, Europe appears indeed very primitive when compared with China. Yea, "because of their past internal diplomatic arrangements, Europe and China see almost instinctively the nuances between these extremes and the advantages of maintaining equilibrium among various poles of power. History has trained the two old worlds to deal better with complexity, uncertainty and the art of concessions". I guess the same could be said of India, Persia and Arabia... And furthermore, as David Gosset states: "The US, which never had to manage internally a multilateral subsystem, is just not well equipped to accept and live within a genuine global multilateral system." Yes you generally are dumb simply because you did not go through experience. And again yes, "In the US, many would have first to recognize that reality is complex and uncertain and that compromise is not necessarily a betrayal of ideals, or negotiation a waste of time." David Gosset is director of Academia Sinica Europaea at the China Europe International Business School, Shanghai, and founding director of the Euro-China Forum. """ On December 1, 2005, Premier Wen Jiabao gave an interview to the French newspaper Le Figaro. As an introduction, he made a reference to the scholar Gu Hongming (1857-1928): "It seems that only the French people could understand China and the Chinese civilization because the French share an extraordinary quality with the Chinese, namely subtlety." And Wen added: "So when I meet French friends, I do not feel there is estrangement between us." We have also this reference to subtlety to describe the Chinese mind, but this time in Jean Monnet's words; remembering his stay in Shanghai in 1934 and 1935, the father of the European community writes: "When I reached Shanghai ... I found myself face to face with men who seemed far more subtle and intelligent than Westerners" (Jean Monnet, Memoirs, Collins, English translation 1978, p 110). """ URL: A symphony of civilizations

Asia Times Online :: Asian News, Business and Economy.: Jul 7, 2006 10:05am 1 review asia, future, globalization
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HG08Aa02.html; The destabilization game A MASTERPIECE. I generally pass over politics but I can't pass over this one. in AsiaTimes by Tom Engelhardt """ In one of his recent commentaries, historian Immanuel Wallerstein pointed out that the "American Century", proclaimed by Time and Life Magazine owner Henry Luce in 1943, lasted far less than the expected 100 years. Now, the question - and except for a few "declinist" scholars like Wallerstein, it would have been an unimaginable one as recently as 2003 - is: "Whose century is the 21 century?" His grim answer: It will be the century of "multi-polar anarchy and wild economic fluctuations". """ URL: The destabilization game

Asia Times Online :: Global Economy - Asian Highway network gathers speed: Jun 19, 2006 9:25pm 2 reviews asia
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Asian_Economy/HF14Dk01.html; Asian Highway network gathers speed Great thoughts about Asia's future. The idea of nation-states unifying along the lines of the EU is a noble ideal. But I'm afraid that Asian nations don't have the benefit or the horror of the EU's background raison d'etre. Remember the horrors of world war 2? Those are the foundations that grew in European artists and intellectuals minds the necessity for change. Read the texts of the painter Constant and it becomes evident that the artists were pressuring the politicians to delivering another future. What about Asia? No such things as an existential urgency... Will reason be strong enough to counter-act national ambitions. I hope. via mark-the-lark's SU pages, in Asia Times by Raja M """ More pieces of the ambitious 141,204-kilometer Asian Highway network slotted into place this month as Vietnam completed its section linking Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. Do Ngoc Dung, vice director general of the My Thuan Project Management Unit (PMU), announced completion of the work. The US$144.77 million construction bill was partly financed by the Asian Development Bank. The $44 billion Asian Highway network weaves through 32 countries, connects Asia with Europe, and promises to boost regional economies by facilitating trade and tourism through its linkage of Asian seaports, airports and major tourist destinations. It also fleshes out dreams of a Pan-Asian community with a common socio-political-economic identity analogous to the European Union. """ URL: Asian Highway network gathers speed

Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs: Apr 25, 2006 9:45am 1 review economics, politics, asia, globalization
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/HD26Dj01.html; Globalization's new underclass So many things have been written and said about how globalization would be a step forward in the economic well-being of the people on this earth. In reality what happens is largely different. While it is true that big capital finds a huge increase in profitable markets, the majority of people who are given jobs by the representatives of that same big capital are suffering income reductions and job losses... For the majority of the people in Western countries well-being has been driven down. It should thus not come as a surprise that representing the majority they'll vote ever more for protectionist politicians... The outcome of such policies could sooner than later spell trouble for the whole world in the form of conflicts between nations. Does this not bring you very uggly memories? in AsiaTimes by Stephen Roach (chief economist at Morgan Stanley.) """ Billed as a great equalizer between rich and poor, globalization has in fact increased the level of inequality in many countries, as shown by indices in China and the US. Though the two powers arrived at their inequality by drastically different routes, the political pressures thus created are causing problems for both. """ URL: Globalization's new underclass

Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan and Hong Kong Ne…: Feb 27, 2006 4:23pm 1 review asia, china, globalization, worldviews
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GC19Ad05.html; The major question for the 21st century is whether this fateful inability to adjust to changes in the global power structure can be overcome. Thus far the signs are negative. Can the United States and Japan, today's versions of rich, established powers, a