Abstract
The international order is passing through fundamental change in post-pandemic. Europe is in a declining phase and power is shifting from Europe to the dynamic economies of Asia. With faster growth, demographic advantage and maritime prowess, the Asian century is no longer a myth. The ongoing century is therefore rightly termed as the Asia century. Asia's growth is being driven by China and India, as well as by literal countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, among others. By 2047, the world's top 10 largest economies will be mostly from Asia. Asia’s rise is driven by free flow of trade and investment, production networks, regional integration, connectivity improvement, etc. Unlike European integration, Asian integration is market-driven.
But when one searches for a documented research on Asian economy which provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the contemporary Asian economy, he/she may not get many resources. There is a gap in literature, and three eminent scholars, namely, Goto, Endo and Ito, have made an attempt to narrow the gap through their seminal publication entitled “The Asian Economy: Contemporary Issues and Challenges”. It is indeed a rich addition to the existing literature of the international economics. Divided in four parts, this edited book focuses on the structural changes that are rapidly transforming the Asian economic landscape in the 21st century. Written in lucid language, the flow and synthesis are nice and convincing. The very first chapter highlighted the key characteristics of the Asian economy where authors argued that Asian integration is “de-factor” integration, whose momentum has been augmented with “de-jure” integration. Japan, undoubtedly, played a key role in Asia’s rise. From there, authors have very correctly discussed the new dimensions of the Asian economy. China came very much in the centre of discussion and that is why a chapter on China’s role (China reshaping Asia: economic transition and the rise of an economic superpower) has added high value to the literature. Asian rise thereafter fuelled by ASEAN integration, leading to further strengthening economic integration across different sub-regions of Asia. Part II of the volume (Borderless Asia) has three important chapters: (i) Factory Asia: global value chains and local firm development, (ii) Capital Asia: growth and capital flows; and (iii) Migrating Asia: labor mobility in an interdependent and connected world. I am heavily impressed by the contents of these chapters. Therefore, part III of the book (Dynamic Asia) presented articles on innovation, urbanization and rising informalization of the Asian economies. Perhaps, the chapter entitled “Informalizing Asia: the other dynamics of the Asian economy” better fits in the part IV where editors discussed Asia at the cross-roads. The part IV, as a natural corollary, presented four key articles on contemporary challenges of the Asian economies: (i) ageing Asia, (ii) unequalizing Asia, (iii) environmentally challenged Asia; and (iv) competing Asia, co-existing Asia. The last one is basically a summary and conclusions.
Overall, this book has highlighted the challenges faced by Asia and opportunities. However, it talked very less on the greatest challenge posed by the recent pandemic. The concluding chapter (competing Asia, co-existing Asia) views Asia's rise as forward looking and opportunities rather than threats. However, today, Asia is divided in two parts when it comes to differences in unfolding geopolitics, which, if continues to grow, objectives of the Asian century as portrayed by the authors and editors of this book would not be achieved. The Asian century has to be inclusive and not fragmented. This publication has several merits to become one of the most popular books in international economics in recent times.