The East Moves West
The East Moves West examines how energy resources, trade, and opportunities for investments and cooperation in areas as diverse as information technology, pharmaceuticals, counter-terrorism, and tourism have brought countries in South and East Asia in close bilateral relationships with countries in the Middle East and Central Asia. Geoffrey Kemp, Director of Regional Strategic Programs at the Center for the National Interest in Washington, D.C., provides a broad survey of the needs and interests of Asia and the Middle East to engage with each other, the nature and scope of their mutually advantageous economic and other projects, and the outcomes of such East-West interaction, from an increased air traffic on their flight paths to the implications for America that remains in high demand as the policeman of the Middle East.
Kemp informs that the Asian need for fossil fuels is at the center of the Asia-Middle East engagement. India and China have huge energy needs due to increased consumer demand on account of both a large population and economic growth. China is collaborating with the Middle East not just in product stocking the “Dragon Marts” but also on various fronts of investment, construction, operation, management, and distribution of oil and gas. Pakistan, Japan and South Korea are in need of energy supplies, with the latter two also providing the Middle East with assistance in construction, development financing, and technical cooperation in various areas of production and resource management. Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have increased their bilateral conversations and economic relationships with the Middle East. Consumer goods such as automobiles, electronics, clothing and jewelry account for a significant share of Asian exports while energy products make up in large part their imports from the Middle East. Similarly, South and East Asia have been investing in Central Asia. China has been assisting Uzbekistan in the construction of new gas pipelines, telecommunications infrastructure, and railroads. China and Kazakhstan are upgrading their road travel to boost trade, while Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are determining the different ways to route oil pipelines in the direction of China. India and Uzbekistan have also signed agreements for mutual gain.
Using Asian labor, expertize, and investments, the oil-rich Middle East has been investing its wealth in building tourist, educational, banking, and oil-gas distribution infrastructure. The skilled and non-skilled Asian labor, especially from India, is often discriminated against but remains essential for the economic growth of the Gulf States. The fruits of this labor include the construction of awe inspiring projects, such as the Burj al-Arab (Tower of the Arabs), man-made islands with luxury homes and resorts, and futuristic cities such as the City of Silk in Kuwait. Bahrain is carving out a niche in banking, Qatar in education, and Oman in ecotourism and adventure tourism. Asian labor is an important part of the Middle East’s aspiration to construct world class cities with museums, airports, airlines, railways, and ports.
The Middle East’s footprint in Asia is also growing simultaneously. Tourism complements the increased diplomatic and economic relations, with some Asian hotels offering special services to Muslim guests, such as halal meals. The availability of high quality education at low cost is attracting students from the Middle East to Asia. Singapore is a hub for Israeli business.
The Middle East and Asia are collaborating in areas of defense, weapons acquisition, and intelligence gathering as well. Defense forces of Pakistan and Bahrain have strong relations; India and Oman conduct joint military exercises. Tehran is a big market for Chinese arms exports; Israel sees China as a major customer for high-tech Israeli military products. China and Uzbekistan are collaborating to contain opposition from domestic Islamist groups such as the Uighur separatists in China and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Israel and India cooperate in a wide range of areas, including intelligence sharing. Intelligence gathering is also part of the reason why Israel is seeking to strengthen its presence in Central Asia and the Caucasus region.
Kemp explains that the Asia-Middle East engagements are self-insulated from inter-state conflicts. The Arab-Israeli conflict does not obstacle Asia’s need to do business with the Middle East. India’s interaction with the Middle East continues despite the latter’s close relations with Pakistan. However, an escalation of such conflicts, together with questions over Iran and Iraq, could adversely impact this East-West relationship. Both India and Pakistan seek to contain the presence of the other in Afghanistan. China’s assistance to Pakistan to build a port and naval base at Gwadar is possibly being countered by India’s assistance in upgrading the Iranian port of Chahbahar. Pakistan’s Islamic connection to the Middle East has helped provide funding for its religious madrassas, a reality that worries India. Terrorism and anarchy could easily jeopardize the oil and natural gas supplies or sabotage the undersea fiber-optic cable networks that facilitate international communications between the Middle East and Asia. But no single country in Asia or the Middle East can offer protection from such harm, as a result of which America remains the region’s policeman. A key question for Kemp is how will the United States deal with its triadic dilemma of a strained home economy, an increased Asian presence in the Middle East, and its own desire to secure its dominant interests in the region?
The East Moves West is a compendium of knowledge, acquired through various scholarly, journalistic, and governmental sources, on the myriad relationships between Asia and the Middle East. However, because Kemp attempts to discuss the engagements of so many different countries in Asia (South, East, and Central) with an equally vast and diverse region of the Middle East (including the Gulf States, Israel, Iraq, and Iran), and then also examine the historic and contemporary complexities and challenges to describe the current nature of such engagements and forecast varying scenarios for the future, including the outcomes for the United States, the resultant narrative is broadly detailed but is not in pursuit of the deeper understandings and evaluations of the hope and despair when democracies, dictatorships, and theocracies engage with each other. Nonetheless, the book is informative and serves as a useful reference text for those with a global mind.
Nameeta Mathur, Saginaw Valley State University (nmathur@svsu.edu)