What do you see as the most significant challenge facing Asia over the next decade - Essay Example

What do you see as the most significant challenge facing Asia over the next decade? One of the most complex and rapidly changing regions in the world in our day, Asia faces various types of crucial challenges in the contemporary world and these challenges include not only political and military, but also social, cultural, economic, environmental and demographic issues. In a detailed survey of the vital challenges facing Asia over the next decade, it becomes lucid that, although heinous challenges are discernible in military, population and urbanization, environmental matters, women’s issues, ethnicity, and religion, the most critical issues crop up in matters concerning politics, economics, and international relations.

Whereas the economic and political rise of Asian countries such as China, Japan, the Koreas, and the ASEAN member states has been momentous, these nations have been facing serious challenges in every field of development. The most crucial and grievous challenge to be faced by the Asian countries, in my observation, will arise from the area of politics, economics, and international relations. These three elements are vitally connected and progress in each of these areas depends on the consistency in the other two departments.

“The economic and political development choices made by each of the Asia Pacific states influenced their relations with one another as well as with countries outside the region.” (Kaup, 2007, P. 5). Significantly, the patterns of international interaction based on the political and economic rise of Asian countries are fundamental to the overall development of Asia. Several studies on the prospects for stability in the Asia-Pacific have emphasized the role of politics, economics and international relations for the growth and stability in the region.

As Michael Mastanduno maintains, the Asia-Pacific is a mosaic of conflicting cultures and political regime types, shifting power balances, and rapid economic change. “It is not surprising that some scholars find the international relations of the Asia-Pacific as ripe for rivalry. It is plausible to imagine security dilemmas, prestige contests, territorial disputes, nationalist resentments, and economic conflicts swelling up and enveloping the region.” (Mastanduno, 2003, P. 2). Therefore, it is essential to comprehend that the challenges arising from the political, economic, and international relations arenas will be most crucial to the progress and growth of the nations in the region.

In short, the most significant challenges facing Asia over the next decade are related with politics, economics, and international relations of the region. Bibliography Kaup, Katherine Palmer. 2007. Understanding Contemporary Asia Pacific. Lynne Rienner Publishers. P. 5. Mastanduno, Michael. 2003. International relations theory and the Asia-Pacific. Columbia University Press. P. 2.