Binding: Paperback (pp: 188) ISBN: 978-81-8253-138-3 Publisher: Cyberwit.net 

The Yi Jing: the Canon of Changes, the ancient Chinese book of worldly wisdom, describes life as nothing but conflict; in other words, life in all its forms cannot be sustained without conflict of all kinds, be it internal or external in nature. This might sound like the unending bane of those who cannot reconcile themselves to a world without some hope of lasting peace, but an analysis of any given period in history would necessarily confirm this Taoist dictum. Conflict, as everybody knows, engenders violence, whether extraneous as in natural disasters or brought on through the agency of self-inflicted acts. Here, in this issue, we’re inevitably confronted by the choice of how individuals and nations, leaders and the led, oppressors and victims have had recourse to this basic elemental tool to wreak change in, for instance, self-hood or national independence, both, by the way, in many cases being willfully chimerical pursuits. If this state of never-ending conflictual confrontation were limited only to the individual, we could see our way out of difficulty without much damage to the world at large. Alas, this’s not the case as we know only too well. The greatest damage - barring manifestations of Nature’s growing pains - is primarily inflicted by countries upon other countries. Countries often form themselves into blocs of nations, either founded upon religious affinities and/or ethnicities, or on the other extreme, based upon secular ideologies. In some cases, weaker nations, either for the sake of protection or for fear of encroachment upon their internal affairs by overly-protective interfering - but self-justifying - nations, merely attach themselves to the benefactor bloc. For the better part of Asia, the bête noire or nemesis during the past half a century or so has been America or rather that part of America which has traditionally concentrated power in the realms of high finance.

The world, however, has come full cycle in a little less than a century, all over again. The catastrophic aftermath of WW1 thrust up Frankln D. Roosevelt who took the most industrially powerful nation through the thirties’ Depression with his New Deal, and through nearly the subsequent American resolution of the world-wide conflict by 1945. President Barack Obama is faced, as we all tend to recognize, by a similar predicament more than half a century after the end of European colonialism, and, in the meantime, America has emerged as a combative and meddlesome neo-colonially self-protectionist nation. America’s institutionalized cult of violence has finally reaped ripostes of a nagging nature which may no more be quelled by invading other countries, either by invitation or by ruse through pacts with partisan Asian leaders. In short, America is right now in the process of losing all the merit it had garnered through its magnanimously victorious WW2 and post-war Marshall Plan efforts: it is very nearly becoming the whipping boy of the world without the collateral to bail itself out of the bad name that sticks on for good.

Michael BACKMAN, Degree in Economics (First Class). Australian journalist writing on Asian politics, financial and economic issues. Author of the best-seller: Asian Eclipse: Exposing the Dark Side of Business in Asia.

Lucy Sai-ki CHEAH, Doctorand-Collaborator at the Centre for Ethics and Global Politics, Luiss University of Rome, Italy. Master’s degree from the Institute of International Education, Stockholm University, Sweden.

CHUNG Chee Min, ex-Lecturer in Mathematics at the Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur. Also served as a computer science specialist at various multi-national companies in Malaysia.

Dr. Valentina GENTILE, Lecturer at the Centre for Ethics and Global Politics, Luiss University of Rome, Italy. Marie Curie Fellow at the Centre for Conflict Studies, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Dr. Muhammad Zafar IQBAL, Professor of Public Administration, Institute of Administrative Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Dean, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, University ofthe Punjab, Lahore. Honorary Professor of Management, University of Stirling, Scotland. Other teaching posts at University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA; Heriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K.; and Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Dr. Nasira JABEEN, Professor of Public Administration, Institute of Administrative Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Prince Claus Chair, School of Governance, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. HEC Approved Supervisor for Ph.D/M.Phil research supervision. National Resource Person, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.

Maya KULKARNI, Journalist, U.S.A.

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Deputy Chairman and General Secretary, Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, Japan.

Dr. Prithwindra MUKHERJEE, ex-Research Fellow, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and ex-lecturer at I.N.A.L.C.O., Paris, and the University of Paris-XII. Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Ministry of Culture), 2008.

Dhruv PANDE, doctorand in political theory at Luiss University, Rome. He obtained a Masters in Pol. Sc. (spec.: Political Theory) at the University of Delhi, India. Former Research Associate at the Developing Countries Research Centre, University of Delhi.

Adam Donaldson POWELL, freelance critic and writer; a Vietnam war "conscientious objector" residing in Norway.

Dr. Ram PUNYANI, M.D.; ex-Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. Secretary, All-India Secular Forum and Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.

Dr. Mohammad A. QUAYUM, Professor of English, Head, Department of English, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; Visiting Professor, Binghampton University. Former Professor at University Putra Malaysia. Lecturer, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Asst. Professor, University of Dhaka.

Dr. Aakash Singh RATHORE, Lecturer at the Centre for Ethics and Global Politics, Luiss University of Rome, Italy. Former Reader, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi. Post-doctoral Fellow, Humboldt University of Berlin. Expert Advisor, Indian Council of Education Cooperation, New Delhi.

Dr. Yoginder Singh SIKAND, ex-Professor and Head, Centre for Studies on Indian Muslims, Hamdard University, Delhi, India. Post-doctoral Research Scholar at the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, The Netherlands. Taught Islamic History at the Henry Martyn Institute of Islamic Studies, Hyderabad, India.

Dr. T.WIGNESAN, ex-Research Fellow, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris; taught a doctoral and master’s seminar at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University and at AGSIRD (Arcadia University in Paris); ex-lecturer at the University of Maryland in Heidelberg and the Commonwealth Institute, London.

Introduction by T.Wignesan 

Discussion, Letters & Opinion Page

by Moteki, Hiromichi,

Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact,

Japan 

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