5^th International ADI Conference

Growth: Critical perspectives from Asia

Abstract:

Eurasia and the Path to Global Growth

I will begin with a consideration of received perspectives and terminology. Our understanding of Asia is complicated by memory of the global ascendancy enjoyed by the Industrialized Powers (“The West”) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the place of a Eurocentric perspective I will offer a comparative overview that will break Eurasia into sub-units, culture zones, placing Europe alongside its historical peers. I will briefly characterize each region. Next, I will suggest a chronology consisting of three historical epochs - Regional, World, and Global. For three centuries after the Closure of the Ecumene the world was dominated by Eurasian empires coexisting roughly in parity. In the nineteenth century the rise of the Industrialized Powers, together with resulting imperialism and colonialism, introduced asymmetries among the Eurasian regions. Global designation of national boundaries fragmented regions, reducing long-shared cultural values to substrates, or footprints, across and below narrow and parochial national units. With the advent of globalization, national boundaries have become obstacles to growth and development. I will close with a glance at some transnational initiatives across Eurasia.