Asian Affairs - November 2024

In this issue

BRICS: Building a new multipolar order
Anyone in doubt about the weakening of Western global influence need only take a glimpse at two simultaneous summits that took place at the end of last month.
Britain’s King Charles led the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa.
Drawn from colonial history, this 56-nation club is routinely described as struggling for relevance – so much so that several key leaders failed to show up.
Sri Lanka’s new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake chose to stay away, as did Canada’s Justin Trudeau. Big-hitters like India’s Narendra Modi and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa opted instead to head to the southern Russian city of Kazan to be hosted by Vladimir Putin at the BRICS summit.
There is no nuanced interpretation here.
For many nations, the BRICS represents an evolving future world order. The Commonwealth is the past. Nor is there any question about the significance of the venue.
The leaders of the developing world accepted hospitality from a government that has torn up the international rule book and invaded a sovereign European nation, with high levels of bloodshed.
Significantly, those leaders attending included the secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.
With this summit, Putin believes he is proving that, far from being isolated by the Ukraine war, power is moving in his direction. He speaks about the group’s common values, vision of development, understanding of each other’s interests.

Asian Affairs Magazine Description:

AsianAffairs has established itself as a magazine that provides an Asian perspective to socio-political developments in Asia, particularly South Asia.
Each month, since 1994, the magazine has featured articles written by well-known writers and journalists, covering a variety of issues concerning South Asia and other regions, besides carrying in-depth analysis of developments in different countries.
There is little doubt that the magazine aptly serves the purpose of reaching out to opinion leaders and policymakers and projecting a pan-Asian viewpoint.
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Parliamentarians, academicians, journalists, and politicians in the above-mentioned countries have regularly been receiving Asian Affairs for more than two decades now.
Our esteemed readers have had a high opinion about the quality of articles and reports published by the magazine over the last 30 years or so.
Particularly in the first two decades of the New Millennium, the global communication and knowledge revolutions brought about significant changes in all aspects of human life.
Keeping abreast of the latest developments, our endeavour is to provide an unbiased, balanced, and objective coverage of happenings across Asia and the world.
Specifically speaking, however, our editorial policy is guided by the dictum: Look at Asia from Asia’s standpoint.