Concept of Asia and Relevance of Space Technologies

In recent years, the idea of Asia is generating great excitement. The resurgence of Asia is resulting as a turning point in the world history. The emerging Asia is no longer been viewed with the earlier stereotyped vision as a quagmire of poverty, illiteracy, religious fundamentalism and border disputes. The region’s different identity in terms of faiths, religions, cultures, political systems and economic inequalities is now been skillfully used by the Asian states for their own development. Various regions of Asia have acknowledged the liberal and democratic values of the West but at the same time have identified and adopted their own model linked to their respective cultures and values.

Over the years, knowledge economy has played a major role towards the growth of Asia. This concept of knowledge needs to be viewed in a more holistic sense while debating Asian growth. Knowledge could be said to contribute both as a product and also as a tool towards this development. The application of knowledge in science and technology has played a crucial role towards the growth and development in this region. The region has a history of various scientific inventions to its credit. However, for last few centuries major inventions have originated mainly from the European and American soil. Fundamental research has not been the Asian forte for many years now. Nevertheless, some change is being witnessed in this field recently. Presently, major emphases have been given for applied research by various Asian states. But, in overall analysis for many years, the internal stimuli for innovative research have mostly behind been found lacking in some sectors of science and technology. Interestingly, the narrative in regard to the rocket science and high technology looks bit different. Space technology is one area where the contributions by few Asian states have been noteworthy particularly both in basic and applied fields during last few decades. Military angle behind the development of rocket science in Asian states should not be ruled out. In turn space science also appears to have benefited from this.

This book is an attempt to explore the character and counters of the Asian Space Race. The book talks about the successful use of space technologies made by spacefaring Asian states towards achieving their socioeconomic mandate, increasing the global footprint in commercial sector and factoring these technologies in their

A. Lele, Asian Space Race: Rhetoric or Reality?, DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-0733-7_Z, 7

© Springer India 2013

security calculus. The book also talks about the investments being made by non – spacefaring Asian states in this field. The book could be viewed as an attempt made towards understanding the space agendas of Asian states and their relationships with other states (both inter – and intra-regional) in respect of cooperation, geopolitics, strategic relevance and economics.

This chapter, more as a backgrounder, attempts to develop the context for this book by taking into account the Asian settings and situating the relevance of space technologies into it. It starts with underlining few basic facts mainly with a view to reiterate and set the tone form the point of view of this work.