The Asian Hemisphere

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The New Asian Hemisphere:

Introduction

The New Asian Hemisphere is rooted in a realistic and present historical frame, the rise of Asia that we are experiencing in this precise moment. If we had to shortly describe this book wrote by Kishore Mahbubani, I would choose to use the terms ``Historical, Critical over the shape of our current world, Argumentative and Theoretical``: The book is shaped within the explanation of the rise of Asia that some people would consider as sudden. The Author goes back in the past, to bring objectivity and causality in this new phenomenon for much of us. He criticizes the `'Western Hemisphere'' and its certain hypocrisy toward the International scale. Also, to persuade many skeptics (as me) Mahbubani says that the rise of Asia will bring more openness in the exchange between countries creating since then an even bigger `'openness'' within the International frame and then an even a faster evolution of the world, in a political, economical and moral scale. We will see for example that Asia would act as an invitation to other Third World countries for a new March to Modernity and then uses a vast argumentation. He will defend his point of views making us realize that his writings are not just about passion and a foolish Anti-Western self-defense, but are deeply rational thought as his statements are explained in a highly logical way with precise and respectable sources. He criticizes then the main `'brakes'' to this evolution, as being the Western countries, as Mahbubani says they have many holes in their golden ideology, concerning the `'in theory and in practice'' scale (the West has many limits in the fulfillment of its ideological foundations, in this lies the limits of Asia's rise in some ways and the world equilibrium as the West often fails as following its real and hidden nature).

As I was going trough the book, I began to think that his book was highly Anti-American, and sometimes, I felt a little feeling of despair coming out of the author, touching sometimes an almost cultural antipathy and a frustration toward the United States (of America). We can go across numerous parts of the book where he almost literally laughs about the acts of The United States. Sometimes, he even caricaturizes America. In French we have an expression: `'Grand parleur, petit faiseur'' which means big talker little `'do-er''. America, and the West spreads an amazing and beautiful ideology toward the Globe, and often take the role of liberator, world organizator, world peace maker. But…the problem is that the West is driven by interest and materialism and not by the World needs, as in a perfect World. It is really true…there is a hole in this attitude.

I am also Anti-American in many ways, as I think this country could have done an amazing job and provide us with an amazing future, but America simply failed the role it takes like granted in a certain hypocrisy of his. The problem resides also then, in my point of view, in the acceptance of this fact. The West, and especially The United States of America, are like a little sensitive kid, having a big ego problem to face the single little tiny remark from the outside. This is also rooted in the history of supremacy of the West, and there unshakening and rigide believe in a complete legitimacy which has to be respected by the rest of the World. In the end, the world changed, and more and more, the West is in a position where they claim this legitimacy in a desperate and furious rage of fear and frustration to loose it.

Nobody asked the West to be so present everywhere. They took the role with strength because they had the strength. Today, the West claims to bring peace to the world, and claims and acts as if it was showing us the good path, as an `'enlighter''. But it has to go above a simple shown ideology. To be franc, I am sharing an almost identical point of view. The Author pasted an almost copy of what I though about the West. The West did a lot in history, and bring a multitude of amazing things to our planet. But the problem is that they are in this moment meeting the limit of their nature which can completely destroy the possibility of a new level, an evolution. America is more and more acting for its own-self, and this hypocrite attitude and self-centralized movement engine is felt gradually more, in decisions and illogical activities in the international scale (America and Saudi Arabia, USA and Iran, why Iraq, why Chile in the seventies, , why shameful attitude of Belgium in Rwanda?) And no wonder, as Mahbubani says, that `'We are more and more going trough a faze of de-westernization of the world. We can feel it in Turkey, in other parts of Asia, and also, outrageously in the Islamic World'' I would add that the anti-Western attitude is a growing reality in most of the planet as the world begins to open its eyes, more and more, even within the West. America is not that prestigious and respectable in the eyes of most of the people, like in a second enlightenment. And many factors, events are beginning to reach a level of explosion, before another stage of World history, the end of the West `'empire''. It is time for a change. And we are living trough the good circumstances. Asia, the most flagrant and noticeable explosion of economical evolution, is the perfect example. It's the New Asian Hemisphere.

The entire book is a permanent channel between Asia's rise, and the Western reaction. In a World where the West still dominates, we have to consider the West as an important level to pass before the change, as the change will be inevitably at the image of the West's. The West finds himself in front of cross roads. Two major roads and an alternative lay in front of them: The acceptation of the `'new new world order'' or its complete rejection. And the book, The New Asian Hemisphere, from Kishore Mahbubani, has its roots into this.

`'The West lost, they have to understand that it is the end, common, its finish now, let it go! Try to accept it, don't be foolish'' says Mahbubani in one of its conferences. The evolution of Asia can fill the holes of the numerous failures of the West. The book is in fact a message to the West, to make them give up this foolish attitude, and a message that Asia can bring a lot to them, to the World, for a better future: the message of Mahbubani is that the West did a good job in many ways, but sometimes had a lack of judgment, and an egoistic attitude as following their own interest. It was a failure in that way, but they still opened the mind of a multitude of countries and drastically helped them to enrich and evaluate, by the promotion of `'the model and its pillars'' which took a long time to be integrated for some of the countries. The Book, as a message to the World for the West to accept a new era, which will come anyway.

The book is separated into 6 chapters following a precise and natural flow of thinking, which takes the form of a statement, an argumentative form of writing to persuade and demonstrate:

1- The Three Scenarios - (A chapter where he does the thesis of the 3 possible outputs for the future or our world, after 3 different possible achievements of the West, the acceptance of the rise of Asia, The rejection so the high-protectionism of the West, to cut the bridges of Asia, or the victory of the West, over the totality of the World)

2- Why Asia Is Rising Now - (An explanation step by step regrouping many factors to explain why is Asia rising now)

3- Why Is The West Not Celebrating - (A chapter explaining why is the West secretly unhappy about the rise of Asia, as touching to their supremacy, and as feeling not so powerful as before anymore. Asia created their almost independent future which is still growing)

4- De-Westernization: The Return of History - (A chapter where Mahbubani shows that not Western countries, the Myth of the West is falling down more and more, for different reasons, in different parts of Asia and around), at the benefit of the roots of their own culture, and their pride, previously lost, upon their own culture.

5- Western Incompetence, Asian Competence? - (A chapter where Mahbubani legitimize the importance and the utility of the Rise of Asia's as being more competent then the West in many cases, and as refuting many arguments of the West to be skeptic about Asia, as the WMD and Nuclear weapons problems and the Warming acceleration of the Planet, which in fact are problems that the United States of America should solve a lot more then Asia, which is in fact being pretty much active in these field, and China also, contrary to what the popular thoughts is about (Global Warming, less dangerous then the USA which started it, and which should be active itself before asking activity from other countries) to prove that Asia is in many ways more successful then the West)

6- Prerequisites for Global Leadership: Principles, Partnerships, and Pragmatism - (Mahbubani draws the key of excelling in a Global Leadership, as in a world of globally spread power).

Our work will be, as we said, a book review. But mainly, to be easily and comfortably readable, we shall organize our mind. Our analyzes will be mainly divided into two parts. The first will be `'1.the book, as a message from the East to the West, concerning the West'', and the second part would be `'2.the book, as a message to West, concerning Asia'' and in a third part `'3.The New Asian Hemisphere as a guide to the future. In a fourth part we will put ourselves beside the main goal and thesis of the book, and analyze it in a more objective way, as analyzing the way it was written and the way the message was presented instead - `'4.into criticism''.

1. A message from the East to the West, concerning the West - A struggle between Western Ideologies and the Western reality - A writing based on denunciation

We shall understand why this book was written, what was its main goal? By looking trough the chapters, before reading the entire book, we can feel that Kishore Mahbubani is trying to show us something really obvious but so obvious that most of the people failed to do so. We have to know that the book of Mahbubani has the aim to be a `'conscience gain''. Mahbubani concecrates a major part of his book to denunciate the West. He used this formula many times: `'Sometimes the hardest things to see are the largest things''. The New Asian Hemisphere is like an `'eye-opener'', as a rigid demonstrations that the West is not to be so mystified.

As being the actual `'leader'' of the planet, no concrete positive changes can be done without the agreement of the West, or without its right behavior toward upcoming changes. It is a reality. The book is then as an argumentation, and sometimes I had the feeling it was aiming the West, as an indirect interlocutor `'please do the right choice, please let this step in history to be taken in the best way possible, you will not regret it, let me tell you why''. Many American people have read this book. The reactions were negative, as a complete rejection, but also, many American people commented on this book as a `'new enlightenment'' (expression used pretty often in the New Asian Hemisphere). Why? Mahbubani sayds thet the future of the World lays in Pragmatism. In the Last Chapter of the book, at p. 271, Mahbubani says it by himself : `' One of the key goals of this book is to restore Western optimism about the future of our World. Western minds can make one simple change to become more optimistic: they need to drop all the ideological baggage they accumulated in the several eras of triumphalism, and they must stop believing that they can remake the World in their own image''. The first part of the work will be showing how did Mahbubani denunciate the bad attitude of the West.

The first chapter of the book `'The Three Scenarios'' draws well the idea. p.26, The Retreat into Fortresses: `'The course of world history will be determined by how the West reacts to this great Asian March to Modernity. The West has two clear alternatives. It could welcome and embrace the spread of Modernization and continue to work with Asia toward opening the world order. Alternatively, it could feel increasingly threatened by the success of Asia and begin to retreat into fortresses, political and economic.''. In theory, the West has always been opposed to `'un-openness'', but the treat can be felt as loosing their superiority. The problem is that `'Governments all over the world have to be sensitive to political rends. Political support for protectionism is increasing in both Europe and America.'' p.29, chap.1. - This phenomenon is to be seen stronger after the end of the Cold War as the author said, and that Europe is for now, even if it is also increasing in America, increasing the most its mentality of hyper-protectionism. This would bring the failure of our future and would be a flagrant reality of the West, their auto-centrism. It is the first message of the book. The West should go trough an enlightenment, trough a rebirth. The values of the West are from the most respectable, but the problem, as Mahbubani says, is linked in the history, and the nature of the West. That plays a very important issue in the book and this issue is very often reformulated in the different chapters, or shown in a different way, from another perspective or in another scale.

P.101-102, chap.3: `'In order to explain the current reaction of the Western world to the undeniable rise of Asia, we need to first take a look at the nature and the history of the West. (…) The West like all states has material interests--economic and military interests, for example--that are for great importance to them. While most Western States enjoy good relations with most Asian States, they are nonetheless (not surprisingly) troubled by the rise of Asia. In the material competition they could experience some real losses (in addition to some gains) (…) But there will also be losses in another key area: power''. This brings us to the first message of this book: ''let it go!''

To touch the core of this first message, an important remark of the book is stating preciously this: `'The tension between Western interests and Western values is vividly shown in the West's attitude to the rise of Asia. At a philosophical level, the West should celebrate. For five hundred years the West has been the only civilization carrying the burden of advancing human knowledge and wealth. Today, it can share this responsibility. It should celebrate the clear presence of Western values in the rise of Asia. The spread of Western modernity into Asia has been a huge gift from the West to Asia. The West should be happy to see the positive result of its gift.'' P.102 -.The first idea is that the West is still protecting its supremacy and then cuts bridges to other countries which have the potential to do so, by fear of loosing power and materials and losing their position of absolute leadership. But the problem is that they don't do it in the right way.

The book does the statement that the West (particularly America) has what we call, a hypocrite political activity in the International scale which is an important starter of the limits of an ideologically clean and true World order. Why cannot we reach a peaceful world? There is one important reason, out of many, coming directly from the West: The Western failure in history to act into the world by following the logic of self-interest gain, is it military, political or material interest is becoming to flagrant. Struggles, military actions and involvement are so inconstant and unequally spread that people begin to notice a `'bug in the system; something is going wrong here!''. Some uninteresting minorities are let in total despair just because they are not important for the West. Rwanda in the end of the 20<sup>th</sup> century is a good example when Tutsis and Hutus created one of the worst genocides in our Modern World. This interest gain race is also shamefully noticeable in negotiations: P.113 `'I represented Singapore on the UNSC in 2001 and 2002, exactly a decade after Ambassador Gharekhan had served. Nothing has changed in the interim. Each time America felt strongly about an issue, it would force the council to accept its point of view. When American interests were aligned with global interests, there would be no problems''. If the West was really at the image of the propagation of peace and liberty, they would help to clear the tensions and restore order, and gain a true and peaceful World Order. We could say: `'But we have the UN!'' No. The West has the entire control of organizations as the UN. Self interest gets mixed also with the UN, as being leaded but the West which is following this logic of self-interest, the meaning of such organizations loose their essence and begin to be more like a tool to the strong ones: p.114 `'The role and purpose of these multilateral organizations have been distorted by Western powers''. The rise of Asia will first put more equality in the world, as for the first time since a long time, we will hear the voice of the East which will have, also for the first time, an impact enough important for us to reach in a real negotiable and un-centralized in a single idea world order. It is amazingly positive and delightful.

We know that the West, and especially the United States of America, following the same logic, control the big majority of the medias around the globe. And Mahbubani has a very interesting point of view I also developed: media fixation done from the conscious of lokking `'really bad'' outside the West. Mass media fixation (to be more precise) of summits as the G-7 are used to show permanently to people that the West is here for us, to hide first their abusive self-centralized activity and second, to feed there influence in the mind of the people: p.123 `'At each meeting the G-7 leaders issue statements that touch on every major global challenge of the day: poverty, AIDS, global warming, terrorism, Africa etc. These pretentious global statements and massive media coverage create de myth that these seven leaders represent the true leadership of the world. They have also created a secondary myth (…) they are only interested in meeting global challenges, not promoting their selfish national interests''. It is at the image of this Western hypocrisy! There are alone counscious of the image they give to people, and try to erase this image by `'loking good'' in front of the World. But the World is beginning to wake up a little bit to much. As when the Church, in the 18th century, began to loose its influence and credibility in favor of science and pragmatism. It is funny because, even if not in the same, Mahbubani says that the key goal to reach for a better world is pragmatism which is an interesting parallel to be made, to understand a little bit better the concept.

When we look at how is the West acting nowadays, it is normal to see some anti-Western ideas getting born. Mahbubani also, in a major part of his book, does a critic on the Western acts toward the planet. Mahbubani speaks about the West in the way some people would describe as almost conspired, as if it was a conspiracy theory, especially with the last point we described; the West hiding the truth, manipulating people, creating plastic ideas and believes, in order to achieve their goals. But what we have to know is that this `'conspiracy theory'' is beginning to be mainstreamed, by skeptics which begin to see the truth, by the accumulation of more and more strange acts, and almost illogical senseless decisions. Since then, we can for sure say that the book is a product of a still growing rejection of the West attitude toward the world. The book is a product of society, and despite his admirable career, and its apparent distance with his style of life with his fellow citizens of his mother land, Mahbubani knew how to feel and demonstrate what was happening in the world, down in the poor suburbs, down in reality. He isn't one of these rich men who just followed the way of capitalism, and recreating the known world order. Mahbubani is a thinker, a philosophy and History graduate, someone who stayed on Earth. This is pretty much admirable and this is why I didn't hesitate to call this part of the essay: `'A message from the East to the West'' as it is a message from the people, more then a message of a simple intellectual. The author is at the image of the achievements of Asia. An achievement with, for the first time in history, the amazingly respectable survival of national pride, cultural roots, and self ideas on the world. Mahbubani as an elder represents the new wave of Asia. But now, we will derivate in the second part of the book review called: `'the book, a message from the East to the West, concerning the East''.

2. A message from the East to the West, concerning the East - The East wants to be heared

kishore mahbubani asia book

We shall understand the Author; his book can be described as highly protective on its subject (The irresistible shift of Global power to the East), and as reaching sometimes an irrational defense and blind conviction that Asia is here for the good; but it is normal, Kishore Mahbunani was raised and had lived and is originated from Asia, the other side of the world, and sees it in a different way to a Westerner would do. He sees the World from a position where he was `'subjugated'' to the power of the West, where he was experiencing a life of less economical comfort; he was in a position of `'inferiority'', in other words, he wasn't an `'organizator'' of the World, he was in the other side, and more then anybody else, he concretely experienced the failures of the West acting on countries around him, or in countries appertaining in the same group (non-Western countries). We can feel, by looking at the way this book was written, how Mahbunani feels joy from the rise of Asia, taking this fact as an outrageous achievement after many years of hard work and reforms to reach a better economical situation, a phenomenon he is ready to defend, a phenomenon he tried to legitimize the best way possible. The New Asian Hemisphere, The irresistible shift of Global power to the East. An irresistible shift..such a passionate title. Passion, pride, strength and conviction; Asia gained what it was missing: conviction of a possible evolution in their own hands. The book is axed and never goes out of this feeling. Mahbubani proves it to us. The second aim of the New Asian Hemisphere is to show why and how Asia is growing so much in the last years, but mainly, to show how much this fact is obvious.

Mahbubani is not criticizing the West until the point he doesn't see what positive things the West has bring to the world. While reading the book, there is always a point where we get confronted to humblest; the author is a pragmatic, a realist person; despite the quantity of critics aimed to the West, he also admits that without the West, the world would not be what it is. Asia would not be what it is. The global economy would not be what it is: free and hyper-active. Following this humblest, we get hit with the first reason of what Asia had become (which is a paradox): Asia is what it is because of the model that the West promoted all these years. In other words, the West gave to Asia the secret of the path to take to achieve an economical `'boom''. Yes, it is paradoxal because now the West regrets it. America defended the idea of possibility for each country to join evolution such a long time, but when it is to much, and when they feel that the breath of China is to be felt on there back, they said: `'oh oh, we have to stop that, liberty is good, but hey, not to the point that they will become as strong as us''-- ''So in fact there is a limit to this unlimited liberty promoted as really being unlimited?'' `'Yes the limit is us, we are the limit, as soon as we feel you are to strong, we must cut bridges, our supremacy is to be protected''--`'let us a chance, we can only bring good''--`'We are scared, we don't want to, what if you do what we've done to you?''-- And there is born Mahbibani's book. In the effort to legitimize and pacifies people who are scared of Asia: `'We are inoffensive!''. The second main important message is that Asia is here to bring into the world what the West Failed to do, as to help them. But how is it possible? Asia had to walk on a long path before becoming strong enough to envisage to take this role in the future.

Mahbubani goes back in history, compares what was then (he often uses this technique) and now and explains what happened in the middle to reach the `'now'' from what was `'then''. He reaches almost a psychological analyzing attitude to define and explain cultural, conceptual and mental human changes within Asia. He also touches to economy, to political and ideological influences; Mahbubani, to explain and defend the rise of Asia, uses a multitude of disciplines and spheres to come to an end. In a way, we can sometimes feel that his book owes its argumentation in the cult of his vast, concrete and honorable experiences (professional and personal) and vast knowledge, to add value to his theories and statements, which makes him go further to the simple theory. He goes very often in the domain of the empiric and direct contact with the problem (being present in several congresses or important meetings when he, with his own eyes, saw how the West was reacting and acting, what Asia was planning, what Asia was reforming). Also he is from Asia, that brings again even more validity to his statements and description of Asia's growth as he has the insider view of the Asian Hemisphere. We shall categorize its argumentative `'talk'' in 3 parts: `'Spirit, Soul and Body''. That is how I see it, and it sounds Asian, so that's just perfect. Nope, it's just perfect, I said its perfect, respect my authority!

3. Asia is a moving Spirit - The Asian stage of mind

p.52:''Curiously, even though the world is returning to the historical norm in terms of natural place of Asian societies in the hierarchy of societies and civilizations around the globe, Asian societies are not succeeding because of a rediscovery of some hidden or forgotten strength of Asian civilizations. Instead, they are rising now because through a very slow and painful process they have finally discovered the pillars of Western wisdom…''. Indeed, as the book says so, and this is the main idea of Mahbubani in this book (in this level of argumentation), Asia had as a first step an enormous effort to do to fight against cultural values which were at the complete opposite of what a country need to develop in a way to be a part of the `'West competition": p. 58 `'We have not fully understood why the West leaped ahead. But we know some of the reasons why Asia slipped behind: a religious mindset that spurned the material world, a lack of belief in the idea of human `'progress'', a natural deference to authority, and a lack of critical questioning. This gap between the Western and Asian mindset seemed to be eternal.''. They had to understand this. And that brings us to the real Asian wisdom. Mahbubani calls this modern wisdom `'pragmatism''. Japan is the best example: p.74 `'Why was Japan successful in implementing Western best practices? Here again the simple answer is that Japanese were completely pragmatic. They approached the challenge of modernizing Japan with no ideological perceptions or blinkers.''. It was the step to be made. It is in other words, the ability to separate the cultural which was acting as a `'brake'' to the purely material economical sphere of the country (the gain of a Western culture: materialism, pragmatism): `'They were willing to consider Western best practices from any country and were prepared to mix and match policies in an eclectic fashion.''. p.75 `'The greatest pragmatist in Asia's history is probably Deng Xiaoping. Indeed, his definition of pragmatism is probably the best definition of the term: `,It does not matter wether a cat is black or white; if it catches mice, it is a good cat''. Deng used this pithy definition of pragmatism to justify the decision to move away from the ideological rigidities of communism.''. Since then, we reach what we can call, the will to leave behind ideologies, and be realistic, I would express the idea like this: `'passion and faith will not help us to grow, we have to leave the present and use each of our movements to grow. Too much of ideological ideals is slowing us down, as we are separated form the `'real thing'' of this world.''. It is indeed related to the spirit. Asia experienced a whole spirit change. And that was the starter of evolution and economical growth. And when the spirit changes, the soul takes the form of the spirit.

4. Asia is a moving soul - hunger of self-existential proof and self achievement

The soul of Asia. We have to know, as we said in the beginning, that Asia took the decision to follow the steps of the important pillars promoted by the West. By doing so, they integrated a multitude of values spread by the West, even though they didn't respect them so much during the years. By doing so, they experienced, for the first of the time of their life, the feeling of having in hands, the possibility to be master of its own destiny and that since then, it was possible for them to gain a better life, with their own efforts. What Asia gained, and it is primordial, is a new confidence: p.49 `'This Western blindness to the reality of other cultures has a deeper aspect. The West failed to see that the time when it was experiencing one of its most triumphant moment also coincided with the moment that long dormant cultures were undergoing a revival of cultural confidence and dynamism.''. The desire to grow and the confidence necessary to it were born. A good word play would be: Asia gained the ferocity of a `'tiger'' and in a part, some of its countries became real tigers in the last 50 years.

As following the values of the West, Asia gained two more values and behaviors: meritocracy and competition. The logic of meritocracy bring to Asia the desire and the conceptual idea to develop in order to get merit within a society. The possibility to reach higher classes was since then possible because the value of a person began to be defined according to acts and achievements and not on static and pre-definite casts like in India, a factor which dynamited the society and favorite economical growth. It is linked with the gain of pragmatism, but expressed as the excitement of the soul of men: I want to get better, always higher: p.67 `'In India, for example, it was inconceivable that a child from the untouchable caste could aspire to modern education and play a leading role in society Consequently, millions of good quality brains were left underused in the Indian body politic.''.

From this, we reach an international factor: competition. Asian countries acted on each other as motivators. None of the countries wanted to be left behind! Mahbubani said that Japan started this fashion. At p. 76, we can see how the author quotes a speech of Deng, viewing the growth of fellow Asian countries: `'Now that the peripheral counries and areas have the lead on us in economic development, if we fail to catch up with them or if we advance at a slow pace, the public may have grievances when they make comparisons. Therefore, if an idea can help speed up development, we must not stop it but should try to make development still faster. (…) We must seized every opportunity to make the country develop quickly.''. We can see how each change had an impact to create another change. Finally, they became almost at the image of Western countries for most of them, even if China for example is still letting the big fence created by communism, which is still, despite the changes, the official regime. But the important to understand is that in this precise moment, and that is really important for Kishore Mahbubani, Asia has fully assimilated the Western values and has everything in its hand to reach the West. And that brings us to the most concrete sphere: material, human and institutional gains which I called, `'Body''.

5. Asia develops its body - Material, human and institutional gains

First of all, Mahbubani says that the first step for this economical growth was the gains of basic technologies which accelerated production and ameliorated the level of life. In the first pages of the book, he gives the example of the toilets, and the feeling he had when he gained the first flushing toilet in his small apartment. For him, it was the first time he got the real feeling that he reached another step. This is one of the factors and motors to the change of mind we explained earlier in the last paragraphs. But mainly, what bring all this change of mentality is the evolution of technology, the gain of tools accelerating production within the masses, is it service production or in the raw product sphere. He gave the example of mobile phone, which was for example, accelerating the process of rice growers in the villages. For example, when they had an unknown bug eating or having a bad impact on the plantations, they could avoid to loose time and go until the city by foot or by very bad transportation, and just take the picture of the bug, and send it by sms or mms to research laboratories specialized in the subject. It looks like a small change, but it is something that was dramatically felt in Asia. But that was a gain from the West or Westenized countries. We have to take in consideration what happened after, which is linked with what we just said: p.57 `'it is the lead to new perspectives on the human condition.''.

p.57 `'The same liberation of the human spirit in Asia may also explain why Asians are absorbing and implementing with great gusto he second pillar of Western Wisdom: science and technology.''. Asians, with this fast and amazing conscious gain of what is comfort, gained a constant hunger of technological and scientific innovation, in the sphere of comfort technology, telecommunication, entertainment and science. Japan is a very good example in entertainment technology, comfort technology, telecommunication, transport technology with the high-speed train. India in its turn is the perfect example for computer science technologies. And this hunger made them be the number 1 continent in technological innovation. And this made something else possible: `'An October 2006 Time magazine cover story, `'Asia's Great Science Experiment'' cited some impressive statistics. One was a prediction made by Richard Smalley (…) who said that by 2010, 90 percent of all PhD-holding scientists and engineers will be living in Asia and that brings us another body sphere of Asia, the human always evaluating potential; A real brain gain which again, indirectly, put another gain of confidence in Asia. And this brain gain in its turn added amazing prestige to the Asian education as their level amazingly gained in importance: p.59 `'The show's cohost Leslie Stahl suggested `'Put Harvard, MIT, and Princeston together, and you negin to get an idea of the status of ITT schools in India.''. p.59 `' While Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT), which are among the most selective institutions in the US, admitted 10.5 percent and 16.2 perent of their undergraduate applicants, only 2.3 percent applicants won admission to the (Indian) ITT institution.''.

All these factors point out why and how the body structure of Asia developed. Asia's body is getting stronger and stronger everyday, and it is not a process in the way to stop. And this again brings us to one of the biggest worries of the West. Aren't they getting to strong?

Technology advance isn't only in the telecommunication, IT or comfort technology scale. The West is scared: Nowadays, p.81 `'The single most important emerging power in Asia and the world is China. Many strategic thinkers in the West are obsessed over the menace of China as an emerging military dragon. This is a possibility, but it is also clear by now that this is not the vision of the Chinese leadership and intelligentsia.''. China, and the rest of Asia has developed so much the main pillars of Western cultures that they also respect one of the main foundation: they follow what the West has promoted for years and years, a peace culture. This is why it is so unbelievable to see such a peaceful atmosphere in a continent where countries are outrageously economically growing, each wanting to be better then the other. Mahbubani says that Asia have done what the West didn't achieve until now, a total cohesion in a mad economical growth, with stable and saint diplomatic relations between the countries. This brings us to what we said in the beginning of the work: Asia is here to achieve what the West never really fully achieved. And until now, is proving this pretty well. The Chapters `'West Incompetence, Asian Competence'' and `'Prerequisites for Global Leadership Principles, Partnerships, and Pragmatism'' (the two last chapters) are at the perfect image of the most important argument of Kishore Mahbubani.

6. Chapter 5 - Western Incompetence, Asian Competence? and Chapter 6 -Prerequisites for Global Leadership: Principles, Partnerships, and Pragmatism

Mahbubani, as a last and final goal, has the one to persuade that Asia is here to help the West. And in this key chapter of the book, Mahbubani wants to point out numerous failures of the West, in there organizational attitude toward the world. Why? He wants to show that the West is not that good in his actual role, that it does a multitude of mistakes that the wisdom of Asia would not permit. A good example given by the author is the failure in the Middle-East: Mahbubani points out the superior wisdom of Asian countries in similar situations: p.184 `'Deng Xiaoping once used a simple comparison to describe the folly of Vietnam in taking on China. (…) he said that we should take a large rock and a small hard stone and continue rubbing them together. Over time, the small rock will disappear. (…) Vietnam's population is 84 million, China's is 1.3 billion. The ratio of Israel's population (7 million) to the Islamic world (1.5 billion) is even worse. Wisdom dictates that Israel should work for peace. Western error could, however, deprive Israel of this opportunity. As Mahbubani says, in the contrary, the AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) claiming to represent most of the Jewish community, (p.183) do not share the general interest of a large part of the Jewish Community in promoting peace in the Middle-East. Rather, they seek to keep Israel strong, the Palestinians weak, and the United States from exerting pressure on Israel''. Another flagrant problem in the Middle-East is expressed that way: p.184 `'The West has failed to achieve most of its policy objectives in the Middle-East. The only one that has been successful has been the securing of oil supplies to the West (and the world). Western policies have been careful and patient in protecting this vital interest. This is why America and the West have made no effort to export democracy to Saudi Arabia or the Gulf sheikhdoms. Prudence has protected Western interest. It is therefore amazing that the same prudence is abandoned in dealing with the other Middle Eastern States. (…) America has destabilized the Middle East by thoughtlessly pushing its agenda for democracy in a few Arab countries.''.

In the last part of the book, Mahbubani points out the challenges that the World has to achieve. For example, something really interesting he says and that I thought is that the world has to reach p.240 `' directly or indirectly, the key Western principles of domestic governance (democracy, rule of law, and social justice) (…) globally, in a careful and prudent fashion.''. And everything would be easier with the help of Asia, a strong ally. Also, I think Mahbubani points out that everything has to be done `'in a carefull and prudent fashion''. The West and America has to understand something : p. 237 `'The events of 9/11 should have taught a lesson that America the great is not America the invulnerable. Yet instead of America reeangaging the world, the gap between it and the worl has never been wider'' (war on Iraq, which was since then pretty much irrational and immature, without any finesse of diplomacy. Again, the conspiracy says that the war on Iraq was made from a self interest. How could America think about self-interest in that way…it is immature…of course if we take apart the theory that the 9/11 was from an American invention. But Mahbubani points out the high lack of finesse and rationality in the last years. A total failure. Asia has this finesse as Mahbubani says.

To summarize what would be the perfect world, for Mahbubani, is to say that the perfect world would be the creation of the Western domestic type of governance, but in an international scale. With all of its spheres: the rule of law, and the social justice (made to help the poor, as an aid to their situation, give them the feeling they can relay on something, and avoid to create a flagrant gap of inequalities, so big and untouched that unhappiness and screaming will be heard, coming from many previously unheard nations. It is one of the cancers of our world.

And , the world needs Partnership and Pragmatism. A pragmatic partnership which will go above the cultural difference in order to have a pragmatic and precise goal, a real world order. A perfect world would be a world where cultural differences will not be slowing down diplomatic relationships between the countries. But is is something really hard to do. But p.264 `'by definition, the East-West partnership (in this frame) will be harder to create and sustain because of the cultural differences.''. America should do the same, and Europe also has to envisage to do the same as European countries have an amazingly bad relationships with North African countries `'despite of the geographical proximity'' because of what Mahbubani calls `'a cultural arrogance''.

Finally, America has a lot of efforts to do in Pragmatism, as Asia, because America's attitude of apparent supremacy becomes to be archaic, as it was with the cultural, religious and `'values sphere'' domain in Asia, slowing down the entrance in modernity and economical growth. Now America has to do the same. Accept with humblest the new disposition of the world, with `'The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East''.

Mahbubani in this last chapter had an almost `'utopical'' desire for the future of the world, but it is something manageable, if only each of the needed aspects come into play, if only each power takes and accept its real place within the world.

into criticism

To be sincere, I really like the book. It was full of passions and precise in the same time. Mahbubani achieved to talk about very important issues, and write about them, in the most simple way which is pretty admirable. Sometimes, I thought that he exerced a to much strong positivism about the rise of Asia, and China. How can we, for example, believe China and its peace culture? Didn't we do the same mistakes when we believed Hitler as he said he would just take the Czech Republic, and nothing else in the begging of World War II? It is maybe to much extreme to considere as real. But optimism sometimes drives the world to go trough catastrophes.

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