The forces of modernity are opening up previously only dreamed of opportunities for hundreds of millions of people, and exposing them to literally whole new worlds. But modernization is also challenging traditional values, threatening individual and group identities, and weakening the glue that holds societies together. The negative consequences are painfully evident in increased crime, drug use, prostitution, child abuse and other forms of anti-social behavior, in alienation and mental illness, and in heightened ethnic and religious tensions.
Yet, one also sees across the region a remarkable resurgence of religion. The growing number of adherents of both established and charismatic faiths calls into question widespread assumptions about the unlimited power of the market and materialism.
The tensions between rural and urban, between old and new, will be particularly acute when they interact with, and reinforce, ethnic and religious tensions. The very process of nation building by a politically dominant ethnic or religious group may be perceived as discriminatory by a nation's minorities. The results can range from minor tensions to organized political opposition, riots, or even armed insurrection. Such conflicts will often be exacerbated by the presence of large numbers of migrants and refugees. Managing these tensions will require a sophisticated combination of public policies and political compromises.
The challenge of modernity will encourage Asian governments to pay more attention to sources of values and ethics. Some will encourage the revival of nationalism to fill the vacuum created by the decline of spent ideologies. Others will seek to strengthen those institutions―churches, schools and families―which have been traditional sources and shapers of the norms of human behavior. Still others will take a renewed interest in the arts and humanities. Governments will recognize that the accommodation process can be aided by efforts to preserve and promote traditional arts and that encourage respect for, rather than denigrate, the past. Such efforts can give meaning and purpose to people whose daily lives buffeted by the pressures arising from urbanization, economic change, and mass communications.
National Sovereignty and Globalization
A fourth major challenge facing the region is how to build the institutional arrangements required to cope with an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. Each of the other challenges facing the region is being affected in new and powerful ways by forces emanating from beyond national borders and beyond the capacity of individual nation states to directly control. These forces increasingly challenge the very concept of national sovereignty; they provide new grounds for conflict as well as new opportunities for cooperation.
Globalization of production and markets are altering national customs procedures, visa requirements, safety standards, and protection of infant industries. The Asian financial crisis reminded us that billions of dollars can now be transferred out of, as well as into, a country with the stroke of a computer key thousands of miles away. The fall of the Thai Baht in the summer of 1997 showed that loss of confidence in one country can spread like a contagion to other countries, near and far.
