Global Asia - June 2024

In this issue

In this cover package of Global Asia, we explore the renewed allure of this promising region, in what we anticipate will be a more sustained focus on Southeast Asia in future issues of our journal to complement our historically intensive focus on Northeast Asia.

In our Features section, we look at the significant impact that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had on Asia through Vladimir Putin’s pivot to the region, which is marked most notably by deepening ties with China and North Korea. Ostracized by the West, Putin is seeking new legitimacy by turning away from Europe toward the East. We also examine how China is seeking greater influence among islands in the Indian Ocean, bringing it into conflict with New Delhi; how India under Narendra Modi is systematically embracing ties with the Persian Gulf; and the ways in which China uses illicit arms sales to Islamic movements as a way of shielding itself from criticism of its treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang.

In our In Focus section, we look at the hopes and fears surrounding the 2024 US presidential election as they relate to China and Hong Kong.

As always, our Book Review section serves up a buffet of great books about Asia, including both long and short reviews.

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.