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The world and international trade may learn much from China's remarkable economic rise in recent decades. The 21st century is increasingly called the ‘Asian Century’ due to China's substantial impact on regional trade organisations, including the EU, NAFTA, SAARC, and ASEAN. Through investments in infrastructure, economic integration, and technical cooperation, China's trading model, defined by bilateral and multilateral agreements, has changed the nature of regionalism. Initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have improved commerce and connectivity, which has promoted collaboration and economic progress. China's involvement in the region has aided development and sparked worries about intellectual property, trade imbalances, and geopolitical problems. This research looks at the economic advantages and geopolitical difficulties of China's trade policies and how regionalism will develop in the face of China's expanding power. Bibliography Entry Rashied, Haroon Ur and Aziz Ur Rahman. 2024. "China’s Economic Growth and Its Impact on Regionalism." Margalla Papers 28 (2): 50-62.

The paper would try to look at the India-China relations of cooperation within BRICS framework. A comparison of this stance with India and China in power struggle Asia would form another part of the paper. India has opened up new platforms on either side of the subcontinent such as Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical Cooperation, Chabahar port project as well as joined Shanghai Cooperation Organization as its means of outreach. This has all been a part of India’s changing role in Asia. However, it must be also kept in mind that there is a China-Pakistan angle to it. A battle for power and influence has been there in the region of South Asia even before the pandemic. Now post covid19 scenario as the western world shrinks and the power fulcrum shifting towards Asia with USA pivot to Asia program as well as the geo-political tensions between USA and China coming up there is a new role for South Asia right now. The paper would like to understand these scenarios with an eye on India-China relations in a cooperative competition relationship scenario. On one side of the paper the joint role of India-China in BRICS framework would be looked at against the Indo- Pacific Asian power struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper would try to look at the India-China relations of cooperation within BRICS framework. A comparison of this stance with India and China in power struggle Asia would form another part of the paper. India has opened up new platforms on either side of the subcontinent such as Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical Cooperation, Chabahar port project as well as joined Shanghai Cooperation Organization as its means of outreach. This has all been a part of India’s changing role in Asia. However, it must be also kept in mind that there is a China-Pakistan angle to it. A battle for power and influence has been there in the region of South Asia even before the pandemic. Now post covid19 scenario as the western world shrinks and the power fulcrum shifting towards Asia with USA pivot to Asia program as well as the geo-political tensions between USA and China coming up there is a new role for South Asia right now. The paper would like to understand these scenarios with an eye on India-China relations in a cooperative competition relationship scenario. On one side of the paper the joint role of India-China in BRICS framework would be looked at against the Indo-Pacific Asian power struggle.

The 21st century is expected to be the dawn of the "Asian Century", with Asia becoming the centre of gravity of great power politics. What contributes to the shaping of this century is the rise of two Asian powers, India and China, which share common aspirations but act differently. The context of the "Asian century" is discussed based on the geopolitical dynamics between India and China, as differing perceptions combined with a clash of interests have led to geopolitical conflict and competition between the two countries. From this perspective, the "Asian Century" is being shaped by the 'confrontational coexistence' between India and China, which implies a departure from the long-held axiom of 'peaceful coexistence'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This collective writing paper brings together writers from Southeast Asia and the Western world to highlight challenges and opportunities for ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its education in the rising of the Asian Century. The inspiration for this project was started by Michael A. Peters' conception of collective writing and the Asian Century. ASEAN is diverse in terms of economy and society; a look from different angles will help to improve policy and practice of ASEAN. Multiple scholars have contributed to creating a series of arguments and explications towards a philosophical stance, and collaboration in higher education to build novel solutions regarding contemporary knowledge and ASEAN practices. Overall, this article illustrates ASEAN International Education (IE) circumstances and possibilities considering statistical data and past experience from transregional perspectives and diverse academic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a small exploratory attempt at discovering perceptions of Indian women through Romanian eyes. This will be done through the medium of Indian literature written in English and through the personal experience of the author. We all have our collections of cultural stereotypes through which we look at the world: our own as well as others'. One of the starting points in this cultural journey is the sheer difference in size between the two spaces and the incredible variety of people who inhabit India. Our classical lenses or, at the other end, our Bollywood goggles, distort our perceptions of the realities of present-day Indian women. The author will compare her constructed images of modern Indian women as they appear mainly in Anuradha Roy's The Folded Earth, with her own experience of real women that she had actually met either in Romania or in India. In today's complex world, in what is called more often and with more valid arguments the Asian century, it is relevant and worthwhile to have such an exercise of cultural and gender exploration in order to better understand ourselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian Century will commence in 2020 when Asia will produce more than half of the global wealth. Latin America and the Caribbean do not seem adequately prepared to navigate in this new global reality. This article aims to contribute with a better understanding of the role played by Asia as promoter of economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean by conducting a comparative analysis of the approaches used by Japan and China to engage with the region. The study is conducted using an analytical framework borrowed from International Economic Law. The main argument develops in this paper is that Japan has used formal or hard law instruments to engage with the region. In contrast, China has employed an eclectic platform that combines hard law instruments as well as soft law mechanisms, that allow the Asian giant to interact with its Latin American and Caribbean partners in more direct ways and without the interference of other global powers.

What does the advent of an 'Asian Century' portend for critical tourism geographies? This commentary argues that two recent developments have made a critical reckoning with the Asian Century more pressing than ever. First, the Asian Century is in danger of being eclipsed by the deteriorating relationship between China and the United States. And second, the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for tourism throughout the world and threatens to fundamentally upend travel as we've known it for the foreseeable future. These two developments suggest a pressing need not just for a decentering of Eurocentric approaches in tourism scholarship - as has long been argued by critical tourism scholars - but for a more thorough unraveling of the politics of knowledge in tourism scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the British Century of the 1800s to the American Century of the 1900s to the contemporary Asian Century, tourism geographies are deeply entangled in broader shifts in geopolitical power (Luce, 1999; Scott, 2008; Shenkar, 2006). This paper considers what the transition into the Asian Century means for some of the most urgent issues of our time such as sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, and environmental change. We critique Anglo-Western centrism in tourism theory and call on tourism scholars to make radical shifts toward more inclusive epistemology and praxis. In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, the significance of the themes addressed are more urgent than ever. The pandemic has hastened claims that the Asian century has further accelerated given the contrasting successes of many Asia-Pacific countries, especially as compared to their Euro-American counterparts (Park, 2020). As critical tourism scholars, we are faced with an unprecedented situation, even as the pandemic looks set to become globally endemic and the true extent of its fullest impacts are only beginning to emerge, with more to surface in the years ahead. That the world faces increasing turmoil is abundantly clear. Yet, amidst the disruption to the everyday, it is hope and compassion, but also political-economic restructuring that is needed to reset the tourism industry in more sustainable, equitable, and ethical directions (Cheer, 2020; Lew, Cheer, Haywood, Brouder, Salazar, 2020; Mostafanezhad, 2020). While in no uncertain terms, the pandemic has forever changed the tourism industry as we once knew it, it is our hope that we can collectively build on the momentum of the inclusive scholarship that Critical Tourism Studies-Asia Pacific is renowned for (Edelheim, 2020; Pernecky, 2020) as we pause to reflect on the possibilities and challenges of tourism in a post-pandemic Asian Century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a period of significant gains, achieved largely through the establishment of institutions that promoted international liberalism, the global order today finds itself at a crucial juncture. Rising inequality, the proliferation of nationalist politics, technology-induced disruptions and the resurgence of zero-sum geopolitics, are all beginning to shake the foundations of the global governance architecture built assiduously over the past 70 years. It is clear that the liberal order, as it is frequently referred to, will not be able to sustain its influence in the 21st century unless it finds new torchbearers in Asia, where politics and economics are scripting a story very different from that of post-war Europe. To some, it is evident that India, which has successfully combined economic growth with its own liberal traditions, will indeed be the heir to and guarantor of this system as an emerging and leading power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A largely forgotten history exists of extensive connections between Asia and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in the first half of the nineteenth century. Although it was a harsh and deadly place for Indigenous people and incarcerated convicts, Van Diemen’s Land offered opportunity for a growing society of merchants, farmers, bureaucrats, governors, judges, retired military men and their families. Asia was a lived presence in everyday life through the purchase and consumption of foodstuffs, clothing and furnishings from India and China. Cashed-up Vandemonians in the 1820s and 1830s could buy rice, silk, bamboo furniture and at least five different types of tea. Many colonial administrators had experience in Asia and brought Indian servants with them. Due to its climate, the island was touted as the perfect retirement destination for British military families retiring from India and other Asian postings. Asian ship crews were an everyday sight in port. Today, however, these past connections have been forgotten. Tasmania’s current turn to Asia as a key strategy for the state’s future economic prosperity appears to be something new. This article argues that revealing the heterogeneous past challenges contemporary views of historical Tasmania as isolated and monocultural and is essential in reshaping Tasmania’s imagined Asian future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since President Jokowi came to power in October 2014, Indonesia's foreign policy has undergone fundamental change, most obviously in the state's emphasis on domestic priorities rather than global engagement. Although Jokowi's foreign policy has pursued an 'active' principle by participating in many international forums, it seems to have overlooked the changing contexts of the geopolitical turn. Asia has been rising and is becoming the geopolitical center of gravity in the 21st century. Yet, instead of adapting to this shift, Indonesia's foreign policy continues to neglect the 'Asian Century' turn that has been taking place for years. Indonesia should have increased its international profile to enhance its status as a 'Third Asian Giant' beside China and India, but Jokowi's administration has not taken such an opportunity. This article argues that Indonesia is not interested in gaining international status because of the domestically focused nature of its foreign policy. Indonesia is seen as needing to consolidate its own national resilience before asserting itself in a wider international arena. For Jokowi, national interest is defined as material--primarily economic--interest. In addition, Indonesia's traditional status as a regional, middle level international power prevents the country from seeking any greater global status. This article argues, with optimism, that Indonesia should seek to change this traditional paradigm of middle power status. It suggests that the assertion of global status matters in Indonesia's foreign policy because the better the country's position in the international hierarchy of states, the easier it will be for the nation to achieve its own domestic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-three years ago, questions posed in this journal asked whether and how the Australian public service was prepared to engage effectively in Asia. More recent meta-analyses of public policy scholarship suggest that Western policy scholars and administrators continue to pay limited attention to Asian policymaking, despite the rise of Asia in the 21st century. This article contributes a research-derived Asia capabilities framework for Australia's public service, distilled from a qualitative study with public administration leaders at Commonwealth, state, and local government levels. It taps scholarly literature in 'cultural intelligence', global leadership competencies, and training to provide a robust conceptual underpinning for the framework. The framework defines the knowledge, skills, capabilities, and experiences vital for Australia's public service to engage effectively with the region in a rapidly changing policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the authors of this introduction, home is not always or only sweet home. For us, it is constructed with contradictions, ruptures and anxieties. Indeed, the world never fails to present us with ‘real’ people with ‘real’ issues of home. After ‘rescuing’ the idea of home from its two assumed arch-enemies ‘mobility’ and ‘urbanization’, we will proceed to formulate our appeal to reconceptualize ‘home’ and explicate why and how to do so. We have cited instances from Hong Kong, Beijing and Asia at large, not only because the empirical core of this special issue is on Asia, but, more fundamentally, also because we want to take issue with the Eurocentric bias in the debates on home hitherto. We conclude by making a modest plea – or more accurately, to configure various trajectories of thinking on ‘home’ into a plea – to bracket home as (making) place, (not) belonging and (flexible) citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a critical analysis of the Hungarian government’s ‘Asian’ political discourse. It argues that in the wake of the economic recession, Hungary became more radical in its turn towards Asia, promoting a discourse that goes beyond economic relations and touches on sentiments of national identity and belonging. Via a discourse-historical analysis of three interrelated discursive events, the article shows how economic, cultural and racial discourses are reinforcing one another in building on the myth of cultural and racial affinity with Inner Asia and the Far East. This process is similar to the Eurasianist discourse in Russia and other ex-Soviet republics, and may have serious social and geopolitical repercussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declining fertility and mortality rates in the second half of the twentieth century have led to the twenty-first century being characterised as the century of the aging population. Concurrently, the decline in the numbers of young people entering the labour force is exacerbating the problems arising from the aging population. Implications of these trends are analysed for a variety of Asian countries. Labour force growth in India and Pakistan will be sufficient to compensate for the shrinking labour forces in Europe and Asia excluding the massive fall in China; outsourcing labour to South Asia will be an increasing trend in the twenty-first century. The Asian countries with less problematic demographic structures are instead facing economic challenges and require education and training to improve labour productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the significant re-orientation of audio-visual production in East Asia over the last few years brought about by the rise of China, beginning with the proposition that unprecedented change is occurring in East Asian media production. While the 'Sinophone world' has been the locus of critical analysis in the past, all eyes are now focused on China. Flows of knowledge, expertise and content are becoming significant in this mediascape, yet this dimension has been overlooked by most scholarship in the field. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks based on cross-border consumption of East Asian content require urgent revision. This article shows how media collaborations are changing global media practice and East Asian media flows through a variety of contemporary international collaborations, as well as relevant policy frameworks that impact, positively or negatively, productions by international partners working in film, television and online and mobile video content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relative period of peace in East Asia since the Second World War has largely been underwritten by not just growing prosperity, but the prospect that peace and stability will automatically generate opportunities for countries to grow rich and contented -- as has occurred in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. In reality, the arrival of this so-called 'Asian Century' is no sure thing. There are significant headwinds or obstacles which may prove difficult for many regional developing countries to overcome. These range from the declining effectiveness of an export-dependent growth model, developments in manufacturing technologies that will dilute the region's existing advantages, and the problems and cost of aging demographics which will be challenging for many countries to manage. This means that in an environment where the lack of economic gains fails to temper deepening strategic competition and rivalry, the first few decades of this century may well be more traumatic and troubling than the last few decades of the previous century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the current infatuation with Asia in Australian education, this article rearticulates the notion of ‘Asia literacy’ to explore new ways of researching on/with/through Asia. Drawing on the post-colonial critique of Western social science knowledge, I first demonstrate the problematic nature of Australian knowledge production on and with Asia in social science and education. And yet, I also highlight the contribution that Australian scholars have made to decolonizing knowledge work, with particular attention to their critique of internationalization of cultural studies in the 1990s. In so doing, I identify the particular epistemic standpoint of Australian scholarship, which has emerged out of its ambivalent location in the global politics of academic knowledge production. Then, I identify three types of engagement by Asian researchers with Western knowledge. Situating Australian education scholarship among them, I explore what ‘Asia literate’ education research might look like from the vantage point of Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Since 1969, over 60 Australian government and non-government policies, documents, committees, working parties and organisations have explored the need to ‘know Asia’. In schools, this engagement is conceptualised as ‘Asia literacy’ and disseminated in the emerging Australian Curriculum through the cross-curriculum priority ‘Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia’. However, ‘Asia literacy’ often struggles for purchase in Australian education. I argue that finding traction requires disruption of the dominant discourse of ‘Asia’ as a unitary construct and questioning what constitutes ‘Asia’. This article explores how discourse can be reconceptualised to open up space for schools to engage with ‘knowing Asia’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primarily developed as an alternative to narrow measures of well-being such as utility and resources, Amartya Sen’s capability approach places strong emphasis on people’s substantive opportunities. As a broad normative framework, the capability approach has become a valuable tool for understanding and evaluating social arrangements (e.g. education policies and development programmes) in terms of individuals’ effective freedoms to achieve valuable beings and doings. This paper explores the recent emergence of ‘capability’ in Australian education policy, specifically in theAustralia in the Asian CenturyWhite Paper. We explore capability as a framing device and reveal how its various meanings are at odds with the scholarly literature, specifically Sen’s conception of capability and its implications for social justice in and through education. The analysis shows that the social justice intent of a capability approach appears to be overtaken in the White Paper by an emphasis on outcomes, performance and functionings that seek to serve the nation’s economic interests more than the interests of students, especially the disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the breakup of Soviet Union in December 1991, the landscape of the Eurasian heartland has been changed and Central Asia rediscovered itself in the comity of nations with the dawn of the twenty first century. But after the breakup, Central Asia did not remain in the priority of the Russian foreign policy as Central Asia being considered as its natural backyard. This vacuum gave birth to the 'New Great Game', thus, the major powers-US, China, Russia and European Union (EU) involved in Central Asian geopolitics was further substantiated by Zbigniew Brzezinski. Following the geopolitical thinkers-Huntington and Mackinder, Zbigniew Brzezinski in his book entitled "The Grand Chessboard: American Primary and its Geostrategic Imperatives" (1997), renamed the Eurasian Heartland as a Chessboard. According to him, five countries-France, Germany, Russia, China, and India are as "pivots" to control the Eurasian landmass. For the given rich mineral resources and its geostrategic location, the 'pivots' have been making efforts to control Central Asia for their vested interests. Though, India and Central Asia had been sharing historical and civilizational relations, even after its independence, the fact is that Central Asia did not find pivotal place in Indian foreign policy. Some perceptible scholars are of the opinion that during the last decade, India has been outfoxed from Central Asia because of the geopolitics of the region. In the very beginning of the 21st century, India realized this diplomatic mistake and redesigned its foreign policy under various frameworks vis-à-vis Central Asia. Connect Central Asia Policy is one of them. Against this background, the main focus of this paper is to find out how geopolitical and geostrategic interests of India are being effected in Central Asia; how India is being outfoxed from Central Asia; how and to what extent Connect Central Asia Policy be helpful in engaging India more positively and constructively with Central Asia to check its outfoxing? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using evidence from what is probably Vietnam's most visited tourism site, the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, this article explores the presentation of the “American War” in the construction of nationhood. The article has three objectives. First, I illustrate how nation-building in a postcolonial and postimperial context is generated through tourism, specifying how the Communist Party communicates Vietnam to lay international tourist audiences. Tourism's political instrumentality for the party is highlighted here. Second, I show how the United States is imaginatively constructed to shape Vietnam's identity. Finally, I use the conclusion to reflect on the implications for the “Asian Century” when considering Vietnam's multifaceted connections to the United States and the West. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We live in transitional times, in which the weight of global power is markedly shifting towards Asia. In this context the meaning of the category 'Asian' is thoroughly in flux, negotiated and contested across multiple dimensions. In this light, is it possible, or even desirable, to speak about post-Asia? If so, what could it mean? Or is such talk perhaps premature? In this article, I consider three ways of thinking about the notion of post-Asia: the temporal, the spatial and the epistemological. In all these instances, we can observe that a genuinely post-Asian perspective has not yet emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of security widening from traditional to non-traditional threats and the changing geo-economic strategies, has resulted in revamping foreign policies of the contemporary nation-states. Realizing this, India also comprehended new outlooks and orientations to deal with rest of the world. Nevertheless, her foreign policy aspirations for socio-economic development, security and peace are dependent on a peaceful and prosperous neighbourhood. Its 'Connect Central Asia Policy' and 'Peaceful Co-existence Principle' provides due recognition to the core and peripheral neighbourhood, particularly, Central Asia in relation to geo-economic, geo-strategic and geo-political aspects. In this respect, Afghanistan also provides a suitable route for India to achieve her foreign policy aspirations in the regional and global context, because of the geo-strategic location of Afghanistan in between South, Central, West and East Asia, as well as the involvement of world powers in this war-torn nation since 9/11. India's assistance to rebuild Afghanistan reaches US $ 2 billion with the recognition of being largest regional and fifth international donor in this process. India has completed various projects in this troubled country regarding socio-economic development, science and technology upgradation, civil infrastructure, human resource development and capacity building in the areas of education, health, agriculture etc. India attempts to work for a stable, secure, peaceful, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan that holds the political, strategic and economic significance for her to assure a strong foothold for regional aspirations as Afghanistan falls in both South as well as Central Asian region. However, there are various constraints before India to meet and promote her interests in Afghanistan. These challenges have become more complex with the resurgence of Taliban, the return of Pakistan factor in Afghan politics and the US-led ISAF withdrawal. Thus, the study is an attempt to explore India's changing foreign policy aspirations, in general, and her Afghan policy, in particular, to provide an insight towards 'emerging India' as a significant regional and global player of current day international politics. With the vision of 'Asian Century,' India has a major role to play making this dream a reality where, in addition of investment and assistance, efforts for converting hatred into love, improving the efficacy of regional organizations as well as resolving amicably the international and inter-regional issues - all needs a humane approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Australian national identity in the context of the Asian Century. It addresses whether national identity plays a significant role in shaping Australia's engagement with Asia. The core of Australian national identity lies in the Western political tradition. Australia is outward-looking country embracing a policy of multiculturalism. The article argues that Australia's identity is increasingly evolving into a more inclusive pluralistic identity. This process is gradual and does not constitute abandoning Australia's core values and traditions. The article outlines the evolution of national identity and examines Labor and Coalition governments' views on identity, Australia's place in the region and globally, as well as the linkage between the national identity and national interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]