The twenty-first century is emerging as the Asian century. During the first half of this century, the Asian region, extending from the Pacific Ocean to the Arabian Sea and northwards, to include Central Asia, is likely to establish itself as the new centre of the economic universe. This will draw to a conclusion three centuries of Western dominance over the world economic resources and for much of this time, its political spaces. This transformation in the world economic order will not be painless either for the East or for the West. Indeed, the transition has the potential for causing much grief to the world as no established order is likely to cede its hegemony without challenge.
The significant point of departure during this phase of transition lies in the fact that the receding economic power of the West (also more broadly classified as the North), dominated by the United States (US), remains and is likely to remain in the immediate future the dominant military power. Historically, the dominant political power, whether it was Rome, Britain or the US was, within its own spheres of influence, also the dominant military as well as economic power. This erosion of the economic power of the West while retaining military dominance with the US and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, does not bode well for an easy transition for the global order.
[…]
How the established powers of the West, led again by the US, will react to this changing balance of economic power towards Asia, which has narrowed their competitive space and domestic employment opportunities, remains a challenge for the leaders of the Western world. How far the hitherto dominant West will go to preserve their hegemony over their economic order remains critical in determining whether the Asian century will evolve peacefully or through a process of turmoil. (Rehman Sobhan, ”The Political Economy of the Asian Century” in Manoranjan Mohanty, Vinod C. Khana, Biswajit Dhar (eds.) with a foreword by Boutros-Boutros Ghali, Building a Just World. Essays in Honour of Muchkund Dubey, India, New Delhi, Orient Black Swan, 2015, pp. 144-161).
The quotation above raises many questions : will military powers continue to determine the future of the world ? Can military forces establish a world order based on peace, justice and non-violence ? Does economic development entail military development ? Is economic power equal with military power ? Is there any other force than military that may rule the world locally and globally ? Do the weak, the poor, the marginalized, the dominated, the discriminated, the oppressed, the disadvantaged have any chance to change their state of being in a non-violent way ?
It is to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi that the questions of world order based on peace, justice and non-violence are chosen to be the main subject of presentation and discussion of the third edition of The Rise of Asia Conference Series. It encourages the participation of scholars from a wide range of scientific disciplines (area studies, cultural studies, ecology, economics, geography, history, humanities, languages, management, political and social sciences…) and practitioners from diverse professional fields (business, civil society, education, enterprise, government, management, parliament, public policy, social and solidarity movements…), based in diverse geographical areas (Africa, North and South America, Australia, Asia, Europe, Pacific…).
SPECIAL SESSIONS : TRIBUTE TO SAMIR AMIN AND OTHER TOPICS
A source of fundamental references of the Bandung Spirit-based Academic, Social and Solidarity Movements, SAMIR AMIN, passed away on August 12, 2018. A special session of the conference will be dedicated to a tribute to him. Those willing to present a tribute are invited to submit their proposal following the GUIDELINES FOR PRESENTER CANDIDATES described in the call for papers. Other special sessions/panels/roundtables/workshops will be dedicated to :
Asia-Africa
Asia-Asia
Asia-Eastern Europe
Asia-Latin America
Asia-Middle East-North Africa
Asia-North America
Asia-Pacific-Oceania
Asia-Western Europe
Asia-World System
BRICS-World Order
Culture-Literature-Religion-Spirituality
Ecology-Architecture-Urbanism
Gender-Women Issues
Social and solidarity movements
Tribute to Samir Amin