Asia between Multipolarism and Multipolarity

This book aims to map the Asian power trajectory and the continent's contemporary journey towards greater multipolarity. This volume examines the impact of plurilateral and multilateral dialogues and cooperative mechanisms on Asia's security and economic architecture. It is based on the proceedings of the thought-provoking 20th edition of the Asian Security Conference which was held from March 26-28, 2019 at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.

Multilateral engagements to frame various regional economic architectures in Asia are becoming more usual than ever before. These engagements must also be seen from the context of anxiety that prevails because of the ongoing US-China trade conflict and debt trap situations arising for small countries from Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Increasing multilateral interactions have become a way to hedge economic uncertainties arising from these incidents. Regional economic initiatives like Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), etc., are some that are shaping the regional economic edifices across Asia. Further, grand connectivity and infrastructure initiative like BRI is met with other such approaches namely, Platform for Japan-India Business Cooperation in Asia-Africa Region and the US-led Blue Dot Network. Along with being strategic in nature, these initiatives are larger in scale and envision transcontinental level integrations. They are also backed by financing from multilateral institutions like Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Sujan R. Chinoy is the Director General of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. A career diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service from 1981-2018, he was India's Ambassador to Japan and Mexico. He is an expert on China, Japan, the Indo-Pacific and politico-security aspects of India's foreign policy.

Jagannath P. Panda is a Research Fellow and Centre Coordinator for East Asia at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He is the Series Editor for "Routledge Studies on Think Asia".