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The Hindu : “For 2000 years, India and China were major civilisations, for the last 200 years, the situation changed – but now it is the return of Asia, and it is not easy for the West to give up their dominant power”, says Kishore Mahbubani, author of “The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East”, published by Public Affairs in New York priced at Rs. 695.The Singapore-based Mahbubani who is dean and Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore was here to launch his book at the Bangalore International Centre in the TERI Complex.He believes that it is important for the West to “step outside their ‘comfort zone’ before any worst-case scenarios” happen. For someone who grew up with no refrigerator, telephone, television or flush toilet in a one-bedroom house with his family of four, Mahbubani in his book, traces the different notions of ‘modernity’ to the West and East and how “Asia wants to replicate, not dominate, the West”.After 33 years of serving as an ambassador in different countries, Mahbubani says: “With a global experience of seeing different regions and how they think of and see the world, Western minds have become more closed rather than open.” His rather optimistic book looks at the rise of Asia as de-westernisation bringing “more goodness to the world”.“The aspirations of the Indian middle-class have grown to the Nano car and better educational opportunities, all stemming from a need to succeed”, he observes.Citing examples of China’s population living below poverty decreasing from 600 million to 200 million, his “March to Modernisation” though positive in many aspects, seems contrived and case-based. But, this reader-friendly book is a refreshing break from the superpower feel-good business-minded accounts that are floating around.From the rise of Asia contributing to a more peaceful and stable society, the West functioning as a single entity on global…More