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

By Michael Wesley

An essential road-map for a region in transition.

The world has never seen economic development as rapid or significant as Asia’s during recent decades. Home to three-fifths of humanity, this restless continent will soon produce more than half of the world’s economic output and consume more energy than the rest of the world combined. All but three of the planet’s current and nascent nuclear powers are Asian, and it has the greatest growth in weapons spending of any other region.

Surprisingly little hard thinking has been done about the future of Asia. Restless Continent is the first book to examine the economic, social, political and strategic trends across the world’s largest continent and present a road-map for thinking about Asia’s future – and the world.

It looks at the psychology of countries becoming newly rich and powerful. It explores the ‘corridors of blood’ – the geography and politics of conflict. And it makes a case about how to avert a plunge into dispute, or even war.

Written for general reader and policy specialist alike, Restless Continent is an agenda-shaping book about the shape of international affairs in the twenty-first century.

‘Restless Continent is a satisfying read for anyone interested in working out what that slogan, the ‘rise of Asia’, really means.’ —Australian Book Review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Black Inc. Books
• Release date: Aug 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781925203073

Michael Wesley

Michael Wesley is one of the world’s leading experts on Asian and international affairs. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Economist. His previous book, There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia, won the 2011 John Button Prize. He is a former head of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, and currently Professor and Director of International, Political and Strategic Studies at the Australian National University.