Global Asia - March 2021

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In this issue of Global Asia, we devote our cover package to responses to a question we asked a number of leading Asia scholars: With Trump out of the picture (for now), what does the region seek from the Biden administration? The answers range across a broad spectrum of issues, most notably the approach to relations
with China. But above all, the answers drew attention to an almost universal yearning among Asian countries to be heard in Washington and not just dictated to.

In our Features section, we include essays on whether Xi Jinping’s more authoritarian approach to governing could ultimately lead to an unraveling of control by the country’s Communist Party; Beijing’s increasing role in North Korea and how this impacts efforts to denuclearize the country; how Thailand’s government is increasingly resorting to “informational autocracy” to thwart growing popular opposition to the government and monarchy; the long history that lies behind the deepening revolt by farmers in India against efforts to reform agricultural policy; and the impact of the Covid-19 crisis in India on the growth of child trafficking there.
We devote our In Focus section to the unfolding drama in Myanmar, where a military coup on Feb. 1 has unleashed widespread protests and a bloody crackdown by the government with a rising death toll. We examine what impact the coup will have on the future of democracy in Myanmar.

Our Book Review section, as always, highlights notable recent works on Asia.

Global Asia Magazine Description:

Global Asia is a quarterly publication of the East Asia Foundation. The foundation, established in Seoul in January 2005, strives to promote peace, prosperity, security and sustainability in East Asia by creating an open and creative forum for the exchange of ideas on regional co-operation and integration, among other goals.
The mission we have set for ourselves with Global Asia is both bold and urgent: It is to provide a compelling, serious, and responsible forum for distinguished thinkers, policymakers, political leaders and business people to debate the most important issues in Asia today.
Global Asia is not a journal with a fixed point of view, or a particular agenda. Our aim is to give voice to the global dimension of what is happening in Asia. In our pages and on our web site, we aim for Asia to speak to the world, and the world to Asia. That is important at a time when this region is playing an ever greater role in world affairs.
There are other fine publications on international affairs. What sets us apart is our focus: Asia. We believe that the world is moving into “the Age of Asia,” to borrow a phrase from one of the articles in the inaugural issue of Global Asia in September 2006. This transformation is not going to occur overnight, but it has already begun.
The region’s dynamic economic growth, stable and accountable political systems, maturing democracies, and evolving sense of community are giving Asia greater weight in the world. These developments will have enormous implications for governments, businesses, societies and individuals across the globe. How that transformation is viewed, and shaped, from within Asia and how it is perceived outside Asia is an essential part of the story we have to tell.
The forces of globalization are having a profound impact throughout the world. And they are being influenced and channeled in different ways in different parts of the world. Ours is the story of Asia’s experience with globalization, and the ideas and debates influencing it. In pursuing our mission, we aim to play a part, however modest, in helping to shape the future of Asia.