ABSTRACT
The most populous and economically dynamic region of the globe, Asia is poised to dominate the twenty-first century. But as Asian nations grapple with modernization, can they avoid the economic and political rivalries that plunged Europe into nationalist conflicts in the last century? Newspaper headlines suggest that in recent years, nationalism is spreading across Asia, with a renewed vigour not seen since the end of the Cold War. Unlike in nineteenth-and twentieth-century Europe, modernization in Asia today is taking place against a backdrop of globalization. Yet, rapid cultural exchange and deepening economic interdependence have not undermined the power and resonance of national solidarities (Calhoun, 2007: 1). Rather than encouraging cosmopolitan attitudes, Samuel Huntington, among others, argues that twenty-first century globalization is fuelling intercivilization and nationalist hostilities both in Asia and across the globe (Huntington, 1996; see also Kaldor, 2004; Smith, 1995).
