Asian Context

In the post-Cold War world, Asia is rediscovering itself both economically and strategically. A new sense of identity is getting revealed by this multicultural, multilinguistic and multireligious community. The geopolitical scenario in this region is assuming greater importance for major powers in the world. The superior position of the Europeans and that of the United States (US) in the global affairs since the nineteenth century is been challenged by few Asian powers. This is mainly happening because these states have succeeded in rapidly increasing their economic and strategic might. It is also important to note that in Asia along with various ‘islands’ of prosperity and peace also a vast ‘landmass’ of poverty and conflict exists.

This overall transformation of Asia is being viewed as a ‘Rise of Asia’. It is argued that the overall growth of economies in Asia is shifting the balance of world economic power away from the Europe and the USA. An optimistic view is that this ‘civilisation in making’ may take the entire world under its sphere of influence in coming years [3]. It is expected that the economic growth of the region may ultimately get translated into power. However, for this to happen, it is essential that the sustained economic development of the region takes place. Any assessment about the future of Asia needs to factor various facets augmenting and limiting the rise of Asia.

The likely rise of Asia is expected to bring in a significant global transformation. The process of the modernisation of Asia (substantial parts of Asia) is almost getting completed by the beginning of twenty-first century. Half a century ago, there appeared to be mainly two modern societies in Asia, namely, Japan and Israel. However, the states within the region particularly the states geographically and culturally close to Japan were quick to learn from the Japanese success. South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore started emulating Japan [4]. On the other

hand, China also understood the advantages of modernising. The growth of China since 1980s has been unique, and by beginning of twenty-first, it became the fastest growing economy of the world. By 2011, China overtook Japan and became the second largest economy in the world. With this, the second and the third (Japan) largest economies in the world are now residing in Asia. Along with the rising China, another country to witness the exponential growth in the region is India (fourth position in terms of purchasing power parity in 2010 estimate).

The stride of Asia towards prosperity and development has become possible be­cause of the opening of their economies, creation of global market for their projects, engaging Western states in economic activities and creating Asian dependence, developing a science and technology base, making trained employable manpower available catering of both regional and global needs. The biggest advantage the Asian region has is the availability of English speaking people[1] which is helping in enhancing their overall global footprint. In strategic realm, Asia is the most ‘happening’ continent in the world. The most significant military conflicts of the twenty-first century like Iraq and Afghanistan are being fought in the Asian theatre. Also, political conflicts like Iran and North Korea are being fought from the Asian soil. Like the rest of the world, Asian region is also marred from threats of terrorism, climate change, natural disasters, piracy and drug trafficking. But, in spite of such limitations, the Asia as a whole is found rising.

The future of Asia will depend on Asians and their efforts to assert themselves. A significant number of Asian Diaspora staying outside Asia is also contributing towards brightening this future. Asian inventiveness, Asian industries, Asian man­agement skills and Asian governance needs to make their presence felt at global level and should be in a position to provide the ‘Asian models for prosperity’ to the rest of the world. Asia has potential to contribute towards to the growth and development of continents like Africa and Latin America.[2] Post-1990s, it has been observed that few Asian states have made significant inroads into various areas of technologies like electronics, nuclear technology, information technology and biotechnology, etc. In few spheres of technology like electronics and information technology, the domination of Asia is global. Space technology is another area where some Asian states have developed themselves into a major spacefaring nation (nations with capability to launch their own satellites to orbit) and have also established various bilateral and multilateral initiatives with developed spacefaring nations. Few of the Asian states are also engaging the African and Latin American states and are helping them for the developments of their space programme. Asian

states have commercial interests attached to their space journey. The present level of achievements by few Asia states in space arena and their roadmaps for the future indicates that the prospects of growth in Asian space industry are very encouraging. Also, once the ‘space tourism’ becomes a reality, Asian states are expected to develop in this sector too.

Asia’s response to space epoch needs to be understood at the backdrop of the appreciation of the overall growth of technology and the political/governmental support received by the scientific community in this quest for technology.