Imagining Asia in 2030 : Trends Scenarios and Alternatives

Contents: About the Editors/Contributors. Preface. Narendra S. Sisodia. I. Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water: 1. Climate Change and Implications for Security/Stephan Harrison. 2. Water Security in Asia 2030: A Look at Indus and Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basins/Uttam Kumar Sinha. II. Economic Growth, Globalisation, Poverty and Equity: 3. Relative Growth of Nations: A View in the Mirror of History/Nayan Chanda. 4. The Siamese Twins: How the USA and China took the World to the Brink of Economic Disaster/Mohan Guruswamy. 5. State of Critical Infrastructure/Adrian V. Gheorghe. III. Demography, Migration and Urbanisation: 6. The Geopolitical Implications of Global Ageing/Phillip Longman. 7. Population Movement and Diaspora/Judith M. Brown. 8. Asia’s Urban Futures and its Implications for Security/Sarita Azad and Narendra S. Sisodia. 9. Pandemics and its Consequences for the Future of Asia/Ali Karami. IV. Society, Identity, Religion and Governance: 10. Hindu Nationalism, Diaspora Politics and Nation Building in India/Catarina Kinnvall and Ted Svensson. 11. Religious Trends and Extremism in Asia/Bilveer Singh. V. Transformational Technologies and their Impact on Society: 12. Cyber Security Challenges for Asia in a 2030 Time Frame/Roland Heickero. 13. Future of Asian Space Powers/Ajey Lele. 14. Pro-Poor Renewable Technology and its Impact on Society: Decentralised Renewable Energy Technologies/David E. Fuente. VI. WMD and International Security: 15. The Relevance (or Otherwise) of Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century/Pervez Hoodbhoy. 16. Asian Security, Chinese and Indian Power and Nuclear Non-Proliferation/Sumit Ganguly and David P. Fidler. 17. Biological and Chemical Terrorism: Assessing the Threat in Asia/Angela Woodward. VII. Asian Militaries and the Future of War: 18. Changing Security Threats: Future Asian Armies in 2030/Yong-Sup Han.19. Asian Air Power in 2030: Capabilities and Technologies Required for Potential Future Scenarios/John P. Geis. 20. Asian Navies: Trends Towards 2030/Vijay Sakhuja. 21. Defence R&D in Asia: Achievements and Future Directions/Nabanita R. Krishnan. 22. War in 2030/Martin van Creveld. VIII. Geopolitics in Asia: Country Perspectives: 23. The Geopolitics of Asia in 2030: An American Perspective/Aaron L. Friedberg. 24. China and India: Geopolitical Centre of Asia in 2030/Li Li . 25. Japan and American Factor in Asia/Makoto Iokibe. 26. Russia’s Asia Policy in 2030/Konstantin Khudoley and Stanislav Tkachenko. IX. Alternative Scenarios: 27. The Geopolitics of Asia in 2030 from China’s Perspective and Interest/Chien-Peng (C.P.) Chung. 28. Hegemony or Balance of Power?: Regional Order and Conflict in a Transforming Asia/ G. John Ikenberry. 29. Is Conflict Inevitable between the Great Powers in Asia in 2030?/ Namrata Goswami. 30. Asian Futures 2030: Global Strategic Trends: Alternative Scenarios/Steve Aiken.

Future belongs to Asia. Already a major transition of wealth and power from the West to the East is being witnessed as never before. Asia could withstand the economic Tsunami which engulfed most of the developed world in 2008. Asian powers like China and India are being envisaged as the drivers of the future global economy. On the other hand, Asia is also facing major security challenges. How Asian states continue with the present pace of their economic growth and simultaneously deal with myriad international security threats is an intriguing question for the world at large.

Bringing together a pool of renowned international experts, the book deals with the potential drivers of future change in Asia like economic growth, climate change, demographics, urbanisation, migration, resource competition, technology, military modernisation, globalisation, nationalism and identity politics, radical movements, extremism and terrorism, and great power competition. It not only attempts to describe the future for Asia in 2030, but also offers exciting alternative future scenarios.