This is the second edition of the “International Relations of Asia.” Much has happened since its first edition in 2008, such as the Global Financial Crisis, and the change of different political leaders in between 2008-2014. But like all academic books with a stellar cast of academics, the strength lies in the use of various theories to explicate the region.
Theories, however, have been tried and tested many times over in the last century. Thus, the book offers no serious breakthrough in terms of conceptual boldness. Had the scholars used Ulrich Beck’s theory of risk, for example, the composite picture of Asia would drastically change.
Ulrich Beck argue that in a “global risk” society, ‘the past no longer controls the present, and the present does not determine the future.’ Everything is unhinged, precisely because of the proliferation of automation, globalization and digitization. All three forces, in tandem with democratization and deregulation, has made individuals more responsible of/over their lives, rather than the states. The “iron bowl” in other words has been broken.
In such an Asia, where social cushion is weak, if not non-existent, one has to wonder if the risk element ofrevolt, is actually increasing by the day, and not by years or decades. This book made no mention of the social and political risks at play, except risks triggered by the wrong moves of the nation state, which, invariably, can lead to conflict and wars. But risk is a powerful analytical lens to understand the speed at which the world changes. Are the respective governments even aware of the risk?
They should. But so should the scholars, and they aren’t. Therefore, something is obviously missing in contemporary academic research. The absence of critical security theories suggest an aversion to the leftist framework of analysis. Yet, with the dawn of drones, where one direction killing by states are becoming more and more common, increasing by some 1200 percent between 2001-2014 according to one study, obviously the world is not what it seems to be. The same can be said about Asia. A good place to start is by picking up this book. By reading it, people will become more aware of the varieties of the regional orders. These categories can enhance one’s conceptual grasp of the dizzying array of events in and across the region.