Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry and Asia's New Geopolitics.

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Author: Cook, Malcolm
• Date: 01 April 2017

Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry and Asia's New Geopolitics. By Michael Wesley. Collingwood, Victoria: Black Inc., 2015. Softcover: 210pp.

Michael Wesley's Restless Continent is a great read. It is bold in its ambitions, analyzing the future of Asia's international relations and its assumed centrality for global peace and security. It is vast in its coverage, ranging from the founding myth of Melaka to a recent naval stand-off between China and Japan, from the location of a small Indian border town to the sociological impact of colonial European claims of civilizational superiority on current tensions among Asian neighbours. It addresses very large and pressing questions from the effects of the end of US strategic dominance in Asia to the uncertain relationship between growing Asian economic integration and interdependence centred on China, and deep and increasingly well-armed distrust between Asia's major powers and smaller states towards these major powers. It is elegant and insightful in its use of language and refreshingly easy to read and brief. All of this is covered in less than 180 pages and it is as suitable as a holiday read sitting on the beach as a...