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The rise of two Asian powerhouses in world politics has prompted the current century to be dubbed as ‘The Asian Century’. This chapter investigates the concept of hegemony in this emerging global order, especially focusing on the role of India in this new configuration. The postcolonial state of India has faced a different dynamic of multiple hegemonies and struggle of counter-hegemonies, often intersecting with one another, both in contestation and collaboration. India's historical experiences with colonial rule and the intricacies of postcolonial state formation provide a different perspective to understand the hegemonic contestations among various elite groups and counter-hegemonic resistance. The rapidly changing global order enables a postcolonial rupture that challenges existing Eurocentric approaches to international relations and presents some promising opportunities to the Indian state. The chapter explores India's track record in the global community in challenging the existing hegemonic order. It highlights how India with its specific experiences with multiple hegemonies could participate in imagining an alternative framing of the global order.

However, long before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, multilateral financial institutions and some Western governments had begun promoting a set of policies among developing countries aimed at advancing economic development and reducing poverty. These included the opening to global markets, privatisation of state-owned businesses and utilities, and deregulation of important economic sectors. Despite their enviable success in raising economic growth rates and reducing poverty, a striking common feature of their recent economic development has been the rise in income inequality in both countries. The twenty-first century has been described as the Asian Century because of the rise of China and India as emerging powers. Encouraging competition has been one of the aims of the policies pursued by the Chinese and Indian governments as part of their economic reforms. Rising agricultural incomes contributed to an increase in demand for industrial products, thus providing the much-needed impetus for the growth in industrial output.

The Australian Diversity Council’s 2015 report Leading in the Asian Century: A National Scorecard of Australia’s Workforce Asia Capability discloses that lack of diversity is a liability for the Australian workforce. While the importance of strong economic and diplomatic links between Australia and Asia is widely agreed on, this is at odds with hegemonic popular culture. Australian popular culture is overwhelmingly anchored within the Anglosphere, with the exception of broadcaster SBS. The proliferation of media content providers in the digital age, however, allows audiences to seek out popular media outside mainstream and broadcast outlets. The small but established popularity of Korean popular culture (hallyu) and music has been enabled by YouTube, music streaming, and file-sharing. Crucially, this allows Australian audiences to explore popular culture beyond the Anglosphere. Capitalizing on K-pop’s trendiness, Korean language courses and institutes (such as the Sejong Institute) have seen significant growth. This chapter explores the K-pop audience in Sydney, and how interest in it affects perspectives and behaviours beyond music. It finds that K-pop provides an access point for audiences to increase their knowledge of Korean and East Asian culture as well as the Korean language, stimulating interest and engagement with Asia.

This paper discusses the issue of whether the 21st century will be an “Asian century.” According to a study commissioned by the Asian Development Bank, Asia 2050: Realizing the Asian Century, Asian countries will keep growing and eventually account for more than half of global GDP by 2050. The study, however, cautions that developing Asia may fall into the “middle-income trap” where growth stagnates due to the lack of productivity growth. This paper provides baseline projections for the world economy up to 2050 and argues that the “Asian century” scenario may be interpreted as one of the high growth cases for the model, and Asia may face the risk of stagnation due to the middle-income trap and/or “Asian conflict” resulting from political, security, and military tensions in Asia. The paper argues that in order to realise an “Asian century,” developing Asia needs to focus on technological progress, inclusive growth, environmental sustainability, institutional and governance quality, and regional cooperation and integration. It also points to possible global governance structures which are alternatives to an Asia-centric world, such as those of a “China century,” “American century 2.0,” “G-2,” “G-0,” and a “multi-polar” world. As the two major powers in this region, China and Japan need to cooperate with each other to maintain regional peace and security, and help realise the “Asian century.” The paper concludes that even when the “Asian century” arrives and Asia dominates the world in terms of economic size, it does not necessarily mean that Asia will dominate the world politically, institutionally, militarily, or in soft power. The 21st century will likely be a “multi-polar” world where the traditional powers of the West (the United States and European Union countries), Japan, and new rising powers (China, India, and other major emerging economies) collectively manage global economic and political affairs.

Concepts about space and time, such as the Asia-Pacific and the Asian Century, are not articulated lightly in international relations discourses. When a spatial or temporal term comes into vogue, it often comes with political connotations and policy implications. This is the context in which we ought to consider the making of the spatial term Indo-Pacific, which has recently made it into the lexicon of official speeches, think-tank reports, government white papers and scholarly works. While many pundits and practitioners are embracing this new formulation, others cast doubt on its usefulness or even question its actual existence. Yet, despite its sudden stardom in foreign policy circles and some debate around its policy implications, how the Indo-Pacific as a political spatial concept came about has not been well understood.To address this gap, this chapter will first briefly survey the Indo-Pacific debate and examine how the debate has not paid adequate attention to the issue of the Indo-Pacific as a discursive construct. It then turns to how the United States, Australia, Japan, India and China together contribute to the formation of this concept amid ongoing geopolitical anxieties about the shape and trajectory of future Asian regional order. While acknowledging China's role in this constitutive process, I argue that as a discursive construct the Indo-Pacific has been motivated primarily by geopolitical anxieties about a perceived emerging regional order dominated by China. Driven by such anxieties, the concept is not an innocent description of a natural region out there; it has the potential of fuelling regional rivalries and exacerbating security dilemmas. Given its possible destabilising consequences, the chapter concludes with a call for a critical reimagination of this now increasingly accepted term.

1. Introduction: football in Asia 2. The slow contagion of Scottish example: association football in nineteenthcentury colonial Singapore 3. From shamateurism to pioneer of Asia's professional football: the introduction of professional football in Hong Kong 4. The politics of Indonesian and Turkish soccer: a comparative analysis 5. 'Hamlet without the Prince': understanding Singapore-Malaysian relations through football 6. The otherness of self: football, fandom and fragmented (sub) nationalism in Bengal 7. 'Hope for the win and hope for the defeat': constructions of South Korean identity and the 2010 FIFAWorld Cup 8. South Asia and South-East Asia: new paths of African footballer migration 9. Twenty years of development of the J-League: analysing the business parameters of professional football in Japan 10. Latin America, football and the Japanese diaspora 11. 'A' is for Australia: New Football's billionaires, consumers and the 'Asian Century'. How the A-League defines the new Australia 12. Australia, Asia and the new football opportunity

Part I: Obama as a Global Leader 1. Obama's Adventures in Globalization D. Sharma, U.P. Gielen 2. President Obama and American Exceptionalism: Is the U.S. an Indispensable Nation in a Multipolar World? G.W. Streich, K Marrar 3. Obama's Leadership in the Era of Globalization: A Critical Examination R.S. Bhagat, A.S. McDevitt, M. Shin, B.N. Srivastava, D.L. Ford 4. Barack Obama and Inclusive Leadership in Engaging Followership E. Hollander Part II: Africa 5. Obama, Hillary, and Women's Voices D. Sharma 6. Afro-Optimism from Mahatma Gandhi to Barack Obama: A Tale of Two Prophecies A. Mazrui 7. African Diasporas, Immigration, and the Obama Administration P. T. Zeleza, C. Veney Part III: The Americas 8. Love as Distraction: Canadians, Obama, and African- Canadian Political Invisibility R. Walcott 9. Changing Times and Economic Cycles: President Obama - the Southern Continent, Mexico, and the Caribbean E. Moncarz, R. Moncarz Part IV: Europe 10. Is Obamamania over in Europe? A. Kalaitzidis 11. Obama's French Connection D. Morrison 12. A Relationship of Hope and Misinterpretation: Germany and Obama T. Cieslik Part V: The Middle East and Israel 13. Arab Images of Obama and the United States: An Egyptian R. Ahmed 14. Obama, Iran, and the New Great Game in Eurasia P. Escobar 15. Great Disappointments in the Arab World during Obama's First Term M. Masad Part VI: Asia-Pacific Region16. Bent by History in Afghanistan A. Munoz 17. Between Popularity and Pragmatism: South Korea's Perspectives on Obama's First Term M. Maass 18. The Chinese View of President Obama B. Shobert 19. Radical Manhood and Traditional Masculinity: Japanese Acknowledgements for Literary Obama E. Senaha Part VII: Conclusion 20. A View from Israel: A Critical Commentary of Obama's Leadership Style D. Efune 21. A Commentary from South Africa: Commentary S. Cooper 22. Obama's Leadership Paradigm in India: A Personal Reflection S. Singh 23.President Obama: A Commentary From Russia E. Osin 24. America's Asian Century: A Mirage or Reality? D. Sharma

When the 1997 Asian financial crisis brought down many of the so-called miracle economies, it dealt a seemingly fatal blow to those claims about the functional superiority of a highly centralized, state-led system of “Asian capitalism” and expectations of an imminent Asian Century that had been so central to the rhetoric of many Asian political leaders in the previous decade.1 For neoliberal reformers within the World Bank and the IMF, and in the treasuries and finance ministries of Western governments, the crisis confirmed that the various models of “Asian capitalism” were in fact outmoded and dysfunctional in an age of global markets. Convergence, once again, became part of the vocabulary of policy-makers in the West as Asian governments were urged to eliminate cronyism and embrace the natural efficiency of the market.2