Southeast Asia Regional Office

Which

‘Shift to Asia’ or ‘Asia – the continent of the 21^st century’ is a choice of slogans symbolizing the economic and social changes in many parts of Asia and their deep-rooted political importance. At the same time, attention has been drawn to Asia’s world-wide impact in the intellectual and technical fields. The malice displayed by some European media with headlines such as ‘Breakdown of the Asian economic miracle’ or ‘End of the Asian century’ and a dependence (though decreasing) on the financial drip of the IMF, do not alter this fact. On the contrary, the management of the crisis has made contradictions apparent and released a potential, which in the long run, promotes democracy and social justice as a necessity for stability and economic recovery. This process has been decisively influenced by critical pressure of national and international NGOs.

Asia is highly varied in cultural terms as well as regarding its economic power and democratic history.  In Europe, the perception of this fact has often been inadequately differentiated. With South Asia on the one side and South East Asia and parts of East Asia on the other, a visible economic and social divide exists. The reciprocal perception of East and South East Asia on the one and South Asia on the other side is blurred and the intra-continental exchange has so far been insufficiently developed.  One must also keep in mind that China’s creative and economic power does not only point the way to Asia’s future, but will also have a decisive effect on the dynamics of geopolitical developments in the area.

This outlines the challenges of the  Heinrich Böll Foundation for years to come.