Global Asia - September 2020

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When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out early this year, it initially took the form of a monolithic struggle between human civilization and the disease, as the virus raced across the globe at alarming speed. It besieged small mountain villages and large urban areas, developed and developing countries alike, ravaging medical systems, spreading alarm and ultimately bringing the global economy to a virtual halt.
Since then, the pandemic has fragmented into a series of particular battles centering around differing national policy responses, chains of transmission and treatment regimes. Early successes in various countries at containing the spread of Covid-19 have given way in some instances to frustrating second, third or even fourth waves of the virus. The widely held view now is that this struggle will not be surmounted until effective vaccines become available and widely used. In the meantime, national and local health authorities plough on, shifting or deepening their responses depending on how and where the virus re-emerges. To be sure, there are efforts at the international level, too, but the main story still largely centers on how each country is dealing with the crisis.
In the cover package of this issue of Global Asia, we look at the array of circumstances that have characterized the region’s battle with Covid-19. The spectrum runs from notable success stories in places such as Vietnam, Taiwan, South Korea and China to more worrying trends in countries such as India and Indonesia. On the whole,
Asia has done comparatively well in relation to the challenges still facing the United States and Europe, as well as South America and Africa. The ardent hope is that next year will begin to see an end to the bitter experiences of 2020 and that Asia, and the rest of the world, will once again look forward to a better future.

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.