Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, is the ultimate foreign policy guru on the dramatic transformation in Asian societies.

His books Can Asians Think, Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust between America and the World, and the forthcoming The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Power to the East are a testimony to his standing as a leading foreign policy expert on Asia. He spoke to D Ravi Kanth of Deccan Herald. Excerpts:

You have referred to a new tide of cultural resurgence in China and India at the World Trade Organisation? How did this come about?

It has come about gradually. For the last two centuries, China and India have been underperforming and a British historian says “from the year one to year 1820, the two largest economies were either China or India”.

Only in the last 200 years, did we see the tide shifting in favour of the Europeans and Americans. What we are seeing now essentially is the return to the norm by, say, 2020. The era of Western domination is coming to an end. Amazingly, this has been happening in the last 10 to 15 years. As this has happened so suddenly, you see Indians and Chinese increasingly feeling confident that they can do as well as others.

How long would Western domination then continue?

In my next book on the rise of Asia, I have captured the dynamics. First of all the economic power will shift, which is already happening. The American and European economies will not reduce in absolute terms, but in relative terms.

By the year 2050, the BRIC’s (Brazil, Russia, India and China) study shows that the four largest economies in the world will be China, the United States, India and Japan. In some ways, China will grow faster and by 2040 or 2025 it will reach the number one slot in the world. The underlying rationale is, success breeds confidence.

The success of the Indian overseas community — and now an Indian becoming the world chess champion — will have a huge impact on the country’s cultural confidence. In my book I have a story in which former Indian President Abdul Kalam asks a 12-year-old boy the reasons for India not becoming a developed country. The fact is, when the 12-year-old boy says India can develop faster, you will see things changing.

Are there robust rule of law institutions in India to bring about this transformation?

In my book, I have a chapter on why Asia is rising now. I say that Asia is rising now because the Asians have finally learnt to implement what I call the seven pillars of Western Wisdom: free market economy, in which China has done relatively better than many Western economies; science and technology (by 2010 about 90 per cent of all PhDs in science would be in Asia); meritocracy, where you begin to select people on the basis of merit, which is more ruthlessly practiced in China than in other countries; culture pragmatism, which made Western societies to succeed, but in the last decade the West became ideologically bound, while the Asians have embraced cultural pragmatism; the culture of peace, where you find guns are silent in East Asia suddenly, it is amazing that all major wars since Second World War were fought in East Asia; rule of law, in which Asian societies have some way to go (in implementing strong rule of law institutions); and education, which is becoming the biggest advantage of the Asian societies, as the hunger for education is enormous here.

Do you foresee gaps emerging between China and India as they race towards world domination?

I think there will be space for both of them. It is not a zero-sum game and the great thing about the free market economy is that when the economy becomes bigger and stronger it does not necessarily mean that the other economy suffers.

The global economy power is growing very strong and the markets will decide the comparative advantage. What I find interesting is that the same Mumbai Industrial Club which wanted to keep trade barriers is now saying it wants the barriers to go. It is in fact, the Europeans and the Americans who now fear Indian competition. There is a need to tear down the barriers in Western countries.