On 21 July, Professor Amitav Acharya from the American University in Washington DC spoke in the IISS-Asia Seminar series, which is sponsored by Australia's Department of Defence, on the topic 'Between Confucius and Kant: China's Ascent and the Future of Asia's Security Order'.
Professor Acharya looked at the crucial question of whether twenty-first century Asia will be peaceful and prosperous or divided and dangerous? He challenged those who argue that Asia's future might resemble Europe's past (characterised by multipolar rivalry and major power war), America's past (imply Chinese regional hegemony in the style of the Monroe Doctrine), or its own past (in other words, a return to a benign tributary system).
Professor Acharya argued that the foundations of Asia's security order are undergoing a historic transformation from economic nationalism, security bilateralism and political authoritarianism towards economic liberalism, an emergent security multilateralism, and political change. Bipolarity has given way to an assymetric multipolarity. Thus, the emergent Asian order cannot be imagined as a Hobbesian anarchy, or a Confucian hierarchy, or a Kantian community. More likely, it is a consociational regional order marked by power-sharing, economic interconnectedness, institutional arrangements
Amitav Acharya is currently Visiting Professorial Fellow at Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. He is a Professor of International Relations at American University, Washington, D.C. He is also the founding Chair of the University’s ASEAN Studies Center, and Director of Transnational Challenges and Emerging Nations Dialogue (TRANSCEND), a Global Partnership in Research and Action on Transnational Challenges, Multilateralism, and Governance. His recent book is Whose Ideas Matter: Agency and Power in Asian Regionalism (Cornell, 2009). He articles have appeared in the four leading journals in international relations: International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, and World Politics.
