The future is Asian, argues the respected analyst, Parag Khanna. But this piece of conventional wisdom needs unwrapping. Geographically, Asia is no more a continent than is Europe. “Asia” itself is not even an Asian idea: Europeans invented it. Asians did not conceive of themselves as being part of a single continental entity. The region is too vast and diverse for that to have been possible.It still is. What is happening is rather a global rebalancing, as the historically brief, but world-changing, domination over humanity of Europe and its colonial progeny dwindles away. A multipolar and messy world will replace it. Will “Asia” make up a huge part of this? Certainly. China and India will be actors. But Asia is rather an arena than an actor.
未來屬于亞洲，備受尊敬的分析師帕拉格?康納(Parag Khanna)如此認為。但這條已被人們普遍接受的論斷有必要展開來細說。從地理上講，亞洲與歐洲都不是一個大陸。“亞洲”本身甚至不是亞洲人的概念：歐洲人發明了這個詞。亞洲人過去并沒有覺得自己屬于一個單獨的大陸。這個地區太過廣袤和多樣，以至于不可能產生這樣的念頭。