The Global Demons Podcast: Pandemics, Cyberattacks, and Other Terrors in the New Age · Foreign Policy Research Instit

Great Power Rivalry and the Evolving Relationships Within Asia

·33 min·3 clips

Parag Khanna reveals that Asia is now a world unto itself, trading and traveling more within itself than with the rest of the world.

This episode features Robert Kaplan of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in conversation with Singapore-based author and strategist Parag Khanna. They examine the shifting geopolitical landscape of Asia from a regional perspective rather than a traditional American viewpoint. Khanna argues that Asia has become its own distinct regional system over the past thirty years, focused on economic growth and internal integration. He notes that most of Asia's four and a half billion people, particularly Indian and Chinese millennials and Gen Z, have no living memory of the Cold War or Western dominance. Within this system, intra-Asian trade, travel, and investment now exceed flows with the rest of the world. Khanna describes two competing frameworks: a U.S.-backed, democratic "Indo-Pacific" view and a China-centric view where Beijing is the regional anchor. He posits that Asia's multi-civilizational history naturally supports a stable multipolar order, not a Chinese hegemony. The discussion highlights that for U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea, China is their largest trading partner, creating a divergence between American security guarantees and Asian economic realities. Khanna points out that these allies actively substituted for American exports during the U.S.-China trade war. He analyzes the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which includes China but excludes the U.S., as a major harmonization agreement for a third of the world's population. Khanna identifies Southeast Asia, with its young demographics and policy reforms, as entering a 30-40 year growth runway fueled by supply chain diversification from China. He contrasts Western hand-wringing over inequality with an Asian acceptance of it as a consequence of rapid progress, so long as poverty is reduced. On China's Belt and Road Initiative, Khanna views it as a grand strategy rooted in geography and commodity security, worth any financial cost to China to ensure resilient trade routes. A surprising claim is that China will significantly de-emphasize Africa in its Belt and Road strategy as it no longer needs African oil due to investments in alternatives. Khanna also notes that regimes enjoying strong popularity in Asia include figures like Rodrigo Duterte and Narendra Modi, as they are seen to deliver on basic economic progress. He concludes that America's relevance in Asia hinges more on concrete deliverables like security guarantees and capital than on its image or soft power. The tone is an informed, conversational dialogue between two well-traveled experts with deep historical context. The style is educational and analytical, weaving historical patterns with contemporary economic and political observations. This episode would appeal to listeners interested in international relations, Asian geopolitics, and the economic decoupling between the U.S. and China. Those seeking a U.S.-centric policy debate or a focus on military conflict might find it less engaging.

As heard by us

An Asia-centered geopolitics conversation linking trade, alliance, and regional strategy.

Robert Kaplan and Parag Khanna frame great-power rivalry from Asia rather than Washington, which gives the discussion a sharper regional angle.

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Why you'd press play

Listen if you want Asia-centered geopolitics without the usual Cold War shorthand.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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