• Asia and the World Roundtable Series

  Director:	Evan A. Feigenbaum, Senior Fellow for East, Central, and South Asia

  March 2009 - Present

  The Asia and the World roundtable series examines the global implications of the rise of Asian power. For a thousand years, Asia was the engine of the global economy, a locus of science and innovation, a center of ideas and intellectual ferment, and the nexus of global power. After a long hiatus, Asia's major powers have now reemerged on the global stage, but their interaction with one another, and with the United States, on important issues and challenges is unsettled and evolving. Speakers and participants analyze the reemergence of China and India as global players, the changing role of Japan on the international stage, and efforts to reshape the international architecture to accommodate the rise of China and India, in particular. Sessions also consider the ways in which greater involvement in the world, not just their immediate neighborhood, is changing the strategic, economic, and political calculations of major countries in East, Central, and South Asia. Meetings look at the tensions, opportunities, and constraints that will determine whether and how the United States can forge partnerships with major Asian powers on issues of global scope. Other sessions may examine timely issues that arise in Central Asia, such as connections to the international oil and gas market, international institutions, and the global economy.

   

  
  

   

  Meetings

  What does the "Rise of Asia" Mean for the United States?

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  September 25, 2009

  Related Project: Asia and the World Roundtable Series

  Speakers:	Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Distinguished Service Professor and Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
  	J. Stapleton Roy, Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
  	Evan A. Feigenbaum, Senior Fellow for East, Central, and South Asia, CFR

  This luncheon meeting focused on two broad themes: (1) the dynamics that have led Japan, China, and, to some extent, India to acquire global interests and global reach, and (2) whether and how the United States needs to accommodate the rise of these three major Asian powers. Harvard’s Joseph Nye and the Wilson Center’s J. Stapleton Roy helped frame overarching issues at the core of the roundtable with their perspectives on several key questions: What strategic and economic trends have enabled the rise of China and India to global prominence? What does their emergence as world powers mean for Japan, which has long been the only Asian power with global reach? What does the emergence of big Asian powers mean for American primacy? And what demands will Asians make of the rest of the world, including the United States, as they seek a global profile consistent with their economic weight?

   

   

  Is India Just a South Asian Power?

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  September 23, 2009

  Related Project: Asia and the World Roundtable Series

  Speakers:	Sanjaya Baru, Consulting Editor, The Business Standard
  	Evan A. Feigenbaum, Senior Fellow for East, Central, and South Asia, CFR

  This breakfast discussion on India’s global role featured Sanjaya Baru, journalist, author, editor, and former media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India is the dominant power in South Asia but its government has pursued links, both strategic and economic, with East Asia and the Persian Gulf. India has an aid program in Africa. And corporate India has gone global, sending investment abroad and acquiring leading brands. Sanjaya Baru offered his perspective on several questions: (1) To what extent do recent policies and trends make India a power in Asia writ large, rather than just South Asia? (2) Is India acquiring global reach, and has Indian foreign policy thinking caught up to India's emerging capabilities? (3) How should the United States factor India into its thinking about regions beyond South Asia? And (4) What are the sources of, and limits to, India's ability to exercise economic, diplomatic, and strategic influence beyond South Asia?

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• The Global Finance Regime

  

  Explore the international finance regime with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.

  New Council Special Reports

  
  

  Enhancing U.S. Preventive Action

  Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.

  The United States in the New Asia

  For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.

  Complete list of Council Special Reports

  New Books

  Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.

  

  In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.

  In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.

  Complete list of CFR Books

  David Rockefeller Studies Program Contacts

  For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:

  James M. Lindsay
  Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
  +1.212.434.9626 (NY); +1.202.509.8405 (DC)
  jlindsay@cfr.org

  Janine Hill
  Deputy Director of Studies Administration
  +1.212.434.9753
  jhill@cfr.org

   

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