Book Launch of “Can Asians Think of Peace? Essays on Managing Conflict in the Asian Century”
August 22, 2025

Can Asians Think of Peace? Essays on Managing Conflict in the Asian Century, has just been published by Springer Nature, in July 2025. This open access book explores the shifting dynamics of global power, highlighting Asia’s resurgence. For centuries before the Western colonial era, China and India dominated the world economy. Now, Asia is reclaiming its historical prominence. China presents a formidable challenge to American power, while India is on track to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030. The 21st century is poised to be the Asian century, but will this rise be peaceful, or will it lead to catastrophic conflicts?

Mr Kishore Mahbubani, Head and Founder of the Asian Peace Programme (APP) at the National University of Singapore, offers a collection of 61 essays on peace in Asia, co-edited by Dr Varigonda Kesava Chandra, and Kristen Tang. Written by scholars and practitioners from both Asia and the West between July 2020 and December 2024, these essays analyse potential flashpoints in Asia and propose pragmatic, implementable ideas for conflict management and peacebuilding. Topics include managing the US-China relationship, stabilizing India-Pakistan and China-India border conflicts, strengthening relations among Southeast Asian countries, and addressing global threats such as nuclear war and climate change. Mr. Mahbubani also provides a sharp introduction, contextualizing the conflict management and peacebuilding processes of the Asian 21st century.

This book is brought to you by the Asian Peace Programme (APP) and the Asia Research Institute (ARI), which houses the APP. The book can be freely accessed at this link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-96-5666-0.

Not a Pawn: Southeast Asia in a World of Rising Great Power Tensions
March 17, 2022

Southeast Asia is a dynamic region that boasts of high-growth economies, interstate peace, and a remarkably successful regional organization — ASEAN. But the region now finds itself unwittingly on the frontline of a grand strategic competition. While China’s rise in particular poses an acute concern to the region, many Southeast Asian nations also strongly oppose the growing U.S.-China security competition that will likely be highly destabilizing and damaging to them. Southeast Asian states also want to partner with both the United States and China to address complex global challenges such as climate change and pandemics.

This webinar will be first in a series of three events produced as a part of a new partnership between the Quincy Institute and the Asian Peace Programme at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

1st APP ROUNDTABLE: ARI20 ANNIVERSARY ROUNDTABLE SERIES – The Idea of Peace in Asia
November 9, 2021

The 21st century is being marked by a decline in the primacy of the West and a corresponding return of Asia. From 1 AD to 1800 AD, China and India have been the two largest economies of the world. After 200 years of Western dominance, Asia is again set to return. However, this return of Asia is also marked by the threat of conflict: between US and China in the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits; between China and India; between China and Japan; and between India and Pakistan. If the rise of Asia is to be peaceful, these potential conflicts need to be managed. This roundtable discusses how the ‘Asian century’ can emerge in a peaceful manner. It asks: What does conflict resolution entail in the Asian context? Can Asia’s rise avoid a redux of the ‘Cold War’? How is the idea of ‘peace’ and ‘conflict’ resolution different in Asia, as compared to the West?