About TAI

Our Focus

The Asia Institute focuses on four interrelated issues that profoundly impact the entire world, but that have not been adequately addressed by most think tanks. We seek to interpret their significance and to plan for a global response through a collaborative dialog that involves a broad range of experts in many countries, especially in Asia.

The transformation of our society, and our economy, by the unprecedented rate of technological change.
Although the brick-and-mortar buildings around us are unchanged and the borders of countries remain essentially the same, our world has been and utterly transformed by technology. Communications technology and AI are bringing together likes with likes across the globe in unpredictable combinations. Decisions are made in new, unpresented, ways as a result. So also the process of determining truth from fiction is made ultimately more problematic as technology changes how we know and what we know, or do not know.

In addition, 3D printing makes it possible to create virtually anything without any need for manufacturing. responding to the impact of technological change on society will be the major challenge for our age, made more difficult because the many transformations are invisible for most people.

New generations of drones, robots and other remote devices will pose new challenges that will require entirely new policies and treaties on an international scale. We cannot simply hold on to old treaties, we must move forward, and do so quickly.

The impact of climate change on our society and its solution through a fundamental reworking of culture, economics and governance at the local, regional and global levels.
Climate change is by far the greatest security threat that we face today. Although it has been identified as a profound danger for over twenty years, our economic system and our social and cultural institutions have been incapable of formulating and implementing a response. We must understand how our current global economic and technological system contributes to climate change and formulate concrete steps for adaptation to, and mitigation of, climate change on a global scale. This project will require a complete rethinking of culture, economics, governance, and international relations.

The transformation of international relations by technological change, specifically startling shifts in diplomacy, security, education, finance, and trade.
Although we use the same terms to describe international relations that we employed 100 years ago, the nature of diplomacy, security, and trade have been altered beyond recognition by technological change. Images, texts, and videos can be transported around the world instantaneously, affecting a true “death of distance,” and increasingly images and reports can be distorted or fabricated. Similarly, people and goods are transported with great ease over vast distances, and globalization has created enormous displaced populations. Goods can be processed and shipped around the world in an entirely automated manner as a result of the fourth industrial revolution. Finally, decisions are made by far-flung interest groups around the world who are able to coordinate, and to share financial and political assets without concern for distance. We must entirely rethink the concept of international relations in light of these transformative changes, moving beyond a vague anxiety about globalization to identify the distinct impact of technologies on international relations.

The rise of anti-intellectualism and the decline of the application of rigorous scientific approaches to analysis and to problem-solving, even in the midst of rapid technological evolution.
The world is caught up in a terrible wave of anti-intellectualism, that ranges from climate change denial to racist essentialism. Such anti-intellectual trends undermine our ability to respond to the pressing issues of our age and encourages a self-indulgent attitude that breeds ignorance and indifference. This development is a product of the debasement of education into a commercial product and the resulting decline in the intellectual rigor in the media and other forms of expression. Politics and policy, journalism and even academics no longer encourage deep intellectual discourse, being increasingly focused on the spectacle.

This new culture is inherently anti-science, even as it embraces glitzy technologies. We must avoid emotional responses driven by technological bells and whistles, and rather strive to apply a rational scientific approach in policy, in technology and in strategy. We must avoid the anti-science, “bread and circuses” approach to political discourse that we see spreading around the world. Above all, intellectuals must have a strong sense of social responsibility and should be treated as essential figures in society. The problems we face today, from the environmental crisis to the increasing divide between the rich and poor, can only be solved by initiating a profound contemplation on the state of our civilization that will allow us to cooperate globally to create novel and sustainable solutions. Only when we have addressed the spiritual hunger and psychological insecurities that lead to unrestrained consumption, or ruthless conflict, can we begin find meaningful long-term answers. As Albert Einstein once remarked, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Our research and our endeavors take into account the underlying contradictions within ourselves that have brought about the crisis of this day.

The Asia Institute’s Fukushima Initiative, for example, built a global platform that brings together different forms of expertise from around the world to find a solution to the challenges posed by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In the process we explored new approaches to collaboration in policy, technology, analysis and implementation. This discussion has also touched on the philosophical and spiritual challenges for us and future generations posed by rapid and disruptive technological change. The same ideas were then applied to the question of Korean unification, captured in our report “Corea as Commons” which suggests how traditional values, and a cooperative culture could transform the process of economic and institutional integration. Going forward The Asia Institute is engaged in a dialog with stakeholders from across Asia concerning the future of Asia itself. We ask ourselves how Asia can move beyond traditional geopolitical rivalries and envision an Asia as a peaceful totality in which current integration provides new horizons for cooperation, not competition. The Asia Institute has produced concrete proposals for a security architecture built around the response to climate change; for a “constitution of information” to respond to the current crisis we faced as a result of the rapid change in communication technology and AI, and mass-scale surveillance, and for new systems to promote international collaboration such as P2P (peer to peer) cooperation throughout Asia that would encourage free interaction of the stakeholders to jointly produce knowledge and other forms of goods/services primarily for “use value” instead of “market value.” Such an approach can temper the ever-widening economic gap and promote empowerment at the grass roots level. We are involved in debates and discussions about how to incorporate the perspectives of experts from the Middle East or Southeast Asia, for example, into the debate on the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. We have also discussed on how ecologists, artists and philosophers can contribute meaningfully in the debate about trade, finance and other forms of integration.