THE RESURGENCE OF ASIA

After a period of some 250 years in which Europe has been in the ascendency, the economic pendulum has begun to swing back towards Asia, “back” because until about 1750 it was Asia that dominated the Eurasian land mass with its large cities, sophisticated lifestyles and flourishing trade. Then Europe embraced the modernizations of the Industrial revolution and reaped the benefits. Now a dynamic Asia is modernizing very fast. Is it sustainable? Much depends on whether Asia can resolve peacefully those problems of old-style nationalism which exhausted Europe. Even so, the statistics of recent growth in India and China cannot necessarily be extrapolated into the future; export-led growth is one thing, running global businesses is quite another. There is much talk of corruption in Asia, but this is perhaps a problem to be managed, rather than solved. Asia is not just South Asia (India), East Asia (China) and South East Asia (the “Tiger” economies). Recent events in the Middle East (West Asia) suggest a move towards democracy, which could transform the nature of Asia. And then there is Central Asia, with its huge mineral resources. The Resurgence is proceeding at a different pace in different parts of Asia and the fantastic prospect is of the whole Eurasian land mass prospering at the same time.