By 2100, more than 80 per cent of the world’s population is expected to live in Afrasia (Africa and Asia). This book draws lessons from history, provides a new cognitive map of the world, and discusses multiple challenges global citizens will face in the age of Afrasia, an emerging macro-region.
The centre of gravity of the world is shifting. Whether the world can manage a soft landing into sustainable equilibrium depends on the nature of the dialogue people in Africa and Asia will organise. The author argues that a state of equilibrium between the two is achievable, provided issues related to gender, employment, agriculture, human–nature relationships, and multicultural coexistence are simultaneously addressed. Can future Afrasia present itself as a community determined not to allow the return of predatory practice internally and externally? Will the fates of African and Asian peoples converge or diverge? How about the future relationships between Afrasia and the rest of the world?
Exploring these questions using multiple disciplines, this book will be of interest to professional researchers and graduate students in IR and Afro-Asian relations, as well as Asian and African area studies, demography, geography, history, development economics, anthropology, language education, and religious studies.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Introduction
Part I World Maps in 2100
Chapter 1 Population Change towards the 22nd Century
Chapter 2 A Soft Landing into a Stationary State
Chapter 3 New Economic Spheres and Migration in Afrasia
Part II The Last Shall Be First
Chapter 4 Eurasian Connectivity
Chapter 5 Frontiers on the Continent and the Ocean
Chapter 6 Two Scenarios
Part III The Age of Afrasia
Chapter 7 The Genesis of Pan-Regionalism
Chapter 8 Religions in Afrasia
Chapter 9 Communication in the South
Conclusion Imagining a Benign Community
Biography
Yoichi Mine is Professor at the Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, Japan, and Visiting Fellow at JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development. His research interests include human security, global history, and African studies. His English publications include several co-edited volumes: Migration and Agency: Afro-Asian Encounters (Palgrave), Preventing Violent Conflict in Africa: Inequalities, Perceptions and Institutions (Palgrave), Human Security Norms in East Asia (Palgrave), and Human Security and Cross-Border Cooperation in East Asia (Palgrave). He is among the founders of the Japan Association for Human Security Studies and the Japan Society for Afrasian Studies.
"This book attests to the rapidly changing demographics of the world not least because of the shifts in the population size of our regions and the global political economy. By evoking an imagined AfrAsia community it presents thought-provoking analyses with insight into the recompositing of civilizations. The discussion chronicles and advocates the reshaping of our future away from the ignominy of nationalism and the threat of hegemonic ambitions towards a commitment to global partnership. It stretches the boundaries of our thoughts in new directions."
Kweku Ampiah, University of Leeds, UK."The study of Africa and Asia’s shared pasts and present has generated a great deal of scholarship in recent years. In this compelling book, Yoichi Mine skilfully presents a vision of a possible shared future, and the promises and pitfalls this could bring. Drawing on a range of scholarly genres, this book offers analysis of the underpinning and implications of the growing entanglements between the two world regions. Provocative and incisive, this book is a welcome new addition to research on Africa-Asia relations."
Scarlett Cornelissen, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
"A long-awaited book looking back and looking forward Afro-Asian shared as well diverging past, present and future in the world stage with an Afro-Asian organic perspective and a multi-disciplinary craft immunizing from boring jargon. In the innovative writing, the author vividly presents the trendy themes of both the continents in foreseeable future, eloquently elaborating East Asia's different 'industrious revolution' from that of Europe, similar political tradition between pre-colonial Africa and Southeast Asia, and the 'aloof coexistence’ prevailing in Afrasian countries which provides a strong sense of hope given the much bigger proportion of migrants to their populations compared with Europe and North America that used to be at the receiving ends."
Liu Haifang, Director of Centre for African Studies and Associate Professor of School of International Studies, Peking University, China.
"Many of the observations in the book – including those which are carefully interspersed with autobiographical anecdotes – and the conclusions based on them are stimulating. The comparative analysis is exceptionally good. But we will have to wait for several decades before we know if its prediction about the emergence of Afrasia as a single macro-region is vindicated. This open-access book has raised the level of discourse about Africa and Asia – the two largest and most populous continents on Earth. It is a timely, and hopefully enduring, contribution to scholarship."Seifudein Adem, International Institute for Asian Studies.
