Global power shifts to Asia, says top US bureaucrat
A global power shift from the west to Asia is taking place after many centuries due to the decline in the former’s economic conditions, a top US bureaucrat said in Colombo recently. Some of the big issues that we grapple with are global trends related to individual empowerment in civil society activity, taking into consideration both the positive and negative aspects of it. The negative aspect of it involves the most visible events such as global terrorism and in the cyber domain, said Robert Williams of the National Intelligence Council, USA at a round table discussion on “Contemporary Politics and Regional Economic Integration in South Asia.”
The other issue, he said was the shifting of global power to the Asia region owing to Europe’s economic decline. As China slows, the economic activity that we were used to during the last 20 years was also changing. “What would be the impact it has on the region? Will it continue to slow down? In many parts of the world we see a prosperity scenario. The generation that is coming up presumes that they would be better off than their parents but that is not going to be the case, he said. “There is a gap between the expectation and for the governments to deliver.”“Other events that we are looking up at were disruptive events in the service industry.
Another area we are looking up at was bio-technology on the positive side and on the negative side was the genetic targeting of weapons,” Mr. Williams explained.Professor of Political Science of the Indiana University, USA, Sumit Ganguly who works as a Consultant to the National Intelligence Council said that there was a project undertaken by them for public consumption and for the incoming President of the United States to give a sense of shape of the kind of world that he or she would inherit when elected and to brief the major source of political changes in the world. This was done increasingly with academics, social activities and analysts to interpret geo-politics. Meanwhile issues related to Sri Lanka in fostering good relationships with India, Pakistan and China was also discussed. Brian Hedrick of the National Intelligence Council, USA also participated at the discussions.