Strategic Analysis

Asianism – The Indian Sub-Text

Going by the economic growth patterns of China, India, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN countries with corresponding decline in the Western economic heft, it was often claimed that the 21st century will be the Asian Century. This might be in doubt due to the pandemic and geopolitical contestation between China and the US, where new faultlines are being drawn. Moreover, India and China being in a potential conflict zone, the dream of the Asian Century might have receded even further.

Sanpo-Yoshi and Corporate Social Responsibility in Japan

Discussion on Asia and Asian values is conspicuously absent from existing research in global capitalist society. In order to foster critical debates on ‘Asianism Retold’, we explore how Asian traditional value has been integrated into the contemporary business system. By examining Japan’s traditional values—Sanpo-yoshi, this article explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Asian values.

Yoshiki Shinohara , Rebecca Chunghee Kim |
July 2022 |
Strategic Analysis

Becoming Asian: Asianness as the Counter-Power Among Japanese Migrants

The complexity of connectivity is reflected in the migrant’s socialization process. Whilst the socialization process in transnational spaces often leads to further ethnic divisiveness, Japanese migrants who had opportunities to encounter Asian Others gradually embraced an overarching Asian identity in Dublin. The shared liminal status of migrants in the local society contributed to the forging of an emotional pan-Asian solidarity and acted as a form of migrant identity against hegemonic whiteness.

Asianism as Many Altogether: Cosmopolitanism and the Asian Political Imaginary

In this article, I seek to understand the pre-European diversity of Asia as a recoverable ideal for a new Asianism, one that takes cosmopolitanism, plurality, and the concrete presence of the Other seriously, as modes of ‘reimperializing’ Asia based on Asian traditions of moral and cultural imagination.

Neoliberalism in Asia: Under the Lens of Land Acquisition for Development in India and China

Through the lens of land acquisition by the State for development in India and China, an extensively and compulsorily strong State intervention has been witnessed. It pushes forward asymmetric neoliberal reforms, draws value surpluses from land development, and frequently uses mandatory coercive measures, when necessary, to accelerate the economic development process. The current reform has not substantially revised, but in fact, has sustained this model of development.

Kathmandu Dilemma: Resetting India-Nepal Ties

The book Kathmandu Dilemma: Resetting India-Nepal Ties by Ranjit Rae, a former Indian Ambassador to Nepal (September 2013 to February 2017), is timely, given that bilateral relations have been marred by numerous controversies in the recent past. Nepal has sent two diplomatic notes—September 2021 and November 2019—to India in the last few years. Accusations in Nepal of India meddling in its internal affairs during the 2021 constitutional crisis, have further vitiated the atmosphere.

Securing India in the Cyber Era: Sameer Patil, Routledge, New Delhi and Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, Mumbai, 2022, 82 pp., £16.99 (E-Book), ISBN 9781003152910

Cyberspace has become the most prominent arena for geopolitical contestation. As conflicts move to another dimension, countries are manipulating cyberspace to exploit vulnerabilities of adversaries to conduct espionage, data theft or make inroads into critical infrastructure to trigger cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure of a nation. Online criminal gangs, mostly with state patronage, are using sophisticated technologies to get the better of security apparatuses in cyberspace.

The Fractured Himalaya: India, Tibet, China, 1949-1962: Nirupama Rao, The Fractured Himalaya: India, Tibet, China, 1949-1962, Viking (Penguin), Gurugram, 2021, 609 pp., Price: INR 999.00 (Hardback), ISBN: 9780670088294

The Fractured Himalaya covers India-China relations during the initial 13-year period (1949–1962) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The author, Nirupama Rao, a former member of the Indian Foreign Service, served as Ambassador to China, thereafter as Foreign Secretary of India and eventually became Ambassador to the United States. Post-superannuation, she received the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship following the Meera and Vikram Gandhi Fellowship at Brown University, to conduct research on Sino-Indian relations. The author’s credentials have equipped her adequately to write this book.

Assessing the China Factor in the India–Australia Strategic Partnership after COVID-19

The article argues that India and Australia have a significant role to play amidst China’s expanding maritime footprint in the Indian Ocean and growing influence in the South China Sea. With worsening relations between India and China as well as Australia and China, both New Delhi and Canberra have been deepening their connections, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

GCC at Crossroads: Challenges Amidst Unrest in the Arab World

The Arab unrest had a severe impact on the GCC, as it uncovered the existing internal fissures and limitations of the organization. Despite their success in integrating themselves on vital economic, security and political issues, divergent policies adopted by the individual member states on a number of regional issues in the aftermath of the Arab unrest was the main reason for the widening cracks within the organization.