The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East

For two centuries the Asians - from Tehran to Tokyo, from Mumbai to Shanghai - have been bystanders in world history, reacting defenselessly to the surges of Western commerce, thought, and power. That era is over. Asia is returning to the center stage it occupied for eighteen centuries before the rise of the West. Asians have absorbed and understood Western best practices in many areas, from free-market economics to the embrace of innovative science and technology, meritocracy, and the rule of law. And they have become innovative in their own way, creating new patterns of cooperation not seen in the West. Their rise is unstoppable - by 2050, three of the world's largest economies will be Asian: China, India, and Japan." "Will the West resist the rise of Asia? This scenario will be disastrous. Asia wants to replicate, not dominate, the West. But the West must gracefully share power with Asia, by giving up its automatic domination of global institutions from the IMF tothe World Bank, from the G-7 to the UN Security Council. If the West accepts the rise of Asia and shares power, the new Asian powers will reciprocate by becoming responsible stakeholders in a stable world order. They will lift some global burdens off Western shoulders. But such positive outcomes are not inevitable. History teaches us that the rise of new powers almost always leads to tension and conflict. This book explains how the worst case scenarios can be avoided. It also explains why Westerners need to step outside their "comfort zone" and prepare new mental maps to understand the rise of Asia. In short, it is an indispensable guide to understanding the forces that are shaping the emerging Asian century.