BOOKS: Kishore Mahbubani's "The New Asian Hemisphere"

UPDATE: Listen to Kishore Mahbubani's web radio interview Feb. 18, 2008, with SAJA right here:

Kishore Mahbubani's latest book tackles a topic that should be of wide interest in America: the rise of Asia. Mahbubani, former ambassador of Singapore to the United Nations and one of Foreign Policy magazine's top 100 public intellectuals in the word, is going to have "The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East" hit bookstores here in February.

From the note to journalists below:

In his long-awaited new manuscript, Kishore Mahbubani, - whom the Foreign Policy Magazine included among the top 100 public intellectuals in the world - describes how for centuries, the Asians –from Tehran to Tokyo-  have been bystanders in world history, reacting defenselessly to the surges of Western commerce, thought, and power. That era is over. Asia is returning to the center stage it occupied for eighteen centuries before the rise of the West.

Asians have absorbed and understood Western best practices in many areas, from free-market economics to the embrace of innovative science and technology, meritocracy and the rule of law. And they have become innovative in their own way, creating new patterns of cooperation not seen in the West. Their rise is unstoppable-by 2050, three of the world’s largest economies will be Asian: China, India, and Japan.

A couple of testimonials:

"This is a splendid book [that] must be read by every Western policymaker; it is a tour de force." - Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University economist.

“In The New Asian Hemisphere, Kishore Mahbubani has given us a very powerful account of the world seen through Asian eyes, and has shown the global relevance of that penetrating vision. The book is both insightful and delightfully combative as well as fun to read.” - Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate

Tour cities: Mahbubani will be making appearances in the following cities in 2008 to promote The New Asian Hemisphere: LA (18-20th Feb), San Francisco (21-22rd Feb), New York (27th-29th Feb).

If you are interested in scheduling an interview with Mahbubani or receiving a journalist's review
copy of "The New Asian Hemisphere," please contact Preeti Dawra preeti.dawra[at]nus.edu.sg - please note that she will only be able to respond to members of the working press. Tell her SAJA sent you.

The full note for journalists is below. Please post your comments, too. 

"The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East"
By Kishore Mahbubani
Publication Date: February 2008
Publisher: Public Affairs (New York)
www.mahbubani.net

Attn: Members of the Working Press:

To schedule an interview or to receive a journalist’s copy for review, please contact Preeti Dawra at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy  via e-mail at preeti.dawra[at] nus.edu.sg

Tour cities: Kishore Mahbubani will be making appearances in the following cities in 2008 to promote The New Asian Hemisphere: LA (18-20th Feb), San Francisco (21-22rd Feb), New York (27th-29th Feb) 

Book Blurbs
“In The New Asian Hemisphere, Kishore Mahbubani has given us a very powerful account of the world seen through Asian eyes, and has shown the global relevance of that penetrating vision. The book is both insightful and delightfully combative as well as fun to read.”  Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate

"There is no more thoughtful observer of Asia, the United States, and their interaction than Kishore Mahbubani.  Having written about Asia, then the United States he has produced a book on their interaction that should be read by anyone who hopes to or will shape US foreign policy over the next decade. And it should be read by anyone in Asia who hopes to understand or influence that policy...The rise of Asia and all that follows it will be the dominant story in history books written 300 years from now with the Cold War and rise of Islam as secondary stories."  Lawrence H Summers, Harvard University

Book Synopsis
In his long-awaited new manuscript, Kishore Mahbubani, - whom the Foreign Policy Magazine included among the top 100 public intellectuals in the world - describes how for centuries, the Asians –from Tehran to Tokyo-  have been bystanders in world history, reacting defenselessly to the surges of Western commerce, thought, and power. That era is over. Asia is returning to the center stage it occupied for eighteen centuries before the rise of the West.

Asians have absorbed and understood Western best practices in many areas, from free-market economics to the embrace of innovative science and technology, meritocracy and the rule of law. And they have become innovative in their own way, creating new patterns of cooperation not seen in the West. Their rise is unstoppable-by 2050, three of the world’s largest economies will be Asian: China, India, and Japan.

Will the West resist the rise of Asia? This scenario will be disastrous. Asia wants to replicate, not dominate, the West. But the West must gracefully share power with Asia, by giving up its automatic domination of global institutions from the IMF to the World Bank, from the G7 to the UN Security Council.

History teaches that the rise of new powers almost always leads to tension and conflict. This, too, may happen. But they can be avoided if the world accepts the key principles for a new global partnership spelled out in The New Asian Hemisphere.

Author bio
Kishore Mahbubani is the author of two previous books: Can Asians Think? and Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust between America and the World. Currently, the Dean and Professor in the Practice of Public Policy of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, Kishore served for 33 years as a diplomat for Singapore and has written many articles on world affairs. He served two stints as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN and as President of the UN Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. In 2005, Foreign Policy magazine included him among the top 100 public intellectuals in the world.