• Research
  • Emissary
  • About
  • Experts
Carnegie Global logoCarnegie lettermark logo
DemocracyIran
  • Donate
Fault Lines in a Rising Asia
Book

Fault Lines in a Rising Asia

While Asia has been an unparalleled economic success, it is also home to some of the world’s most dangerous, diverse, and divisive challenges.

Link Copied
By Chung Min Lee
Published on Apr 20, 2016

Additional Links

Paperback - $19.95Hardback - $49.95Kindle - $15.95iTunes - $9.99
Program mobile hero image

Program

Asia

The Asia Program in Washington studies disruptive security, governance, and technological risks that threaten peace, growth, and opportunity in the Asia-Pacific region, including a focus on China, Japan, and the Korean peninsula.

Learn More

Source: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Asia has already risen by most hard-power measures. But without an understanding of the downsides of Asia’s rise, the conventional narrative is incomplete, misleading, and inaccurate.

Chung Min Lee explores the fundamental dichotomy that defines contemporary Asia. While the region has been an unparalleled economic success, it is also home to some of the world’s most dangerous, diverse, and divisive challenges. Contrary to prevailing wisdom, he says, Asia’s rise doesn’t mean the demise of the West.

Advance Praise

“Is Asia ready for the Asian century? Chung Min Lee’s thought-provoking new book raises serious questions about whether Asia’s fragile political structures and fraught geopolitics can sustain global leadership. An important corrective to current jeremiads in America about its own decline and the remorseless rise of the East.”
—Simon Long, Banyan columnist, Economist

“Chung Min Lee—with clarity and tremendous skill—illustrates the political and military challenges that the rise of Asia has brought upon the region.”
—Kiichi Fujiwara, University of Tokyo

About the Author

Chung Min Lee

Senior Fellow, Asia Program

Chung Min Lee is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Asia Program. He is an expert on Korean and Northeast Asian security, defense, intelligence, and crisis management.

    Recent Work

  • Paper
    Are Long-Term NATO–South Korea Defense Ties Possible? Transitioning From an Arms Exporter to a Trusted Defense Partner

      Chung Min Lee

  • Article
    President Lee Jae Myung and the Resetting of Korea, Inc.

      Chung Min Lee

Chung Min Lee
Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Chung Min Lee
South AsiaIndiaPakistanEast AsiaSouth KoreaChinaTaiwanJapanNorth KoreaPolitical ReformSecurityMilitaryNuclear PolicyArms ControlForeign Policy

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

More Work from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

  • Commentary
    Strategic Europe
    The Climate Blind Spot in Europe’s New Migration Pact

    The EU’s new migration policy is not suited to today’s realities. With climate change increasingly becoming a driver of displacement, Europe needs to rethink its deterrence-focused approach.

      • Shana Tabak headshot

      Shana Tabak

  • Nuclear power plant reactor under construction
    Paper
    Time for Nuclear Recycling? Prospects and Implications During a Global Nuclear Energy Renewal

    Nuclear recycling has emerged as a salient, cross-cutting issue, one that is heavily dependent on broader choices among reactor designs, fuel availability, economic resources, technological options, and political choices. States and nuclear industries seeking to advance recycling must devote sustained consideration now to the interplay of all these factors.

      Etienne Pochon

  • two men sitting next to each other
    Commentary
    Emissary
    Senegal’s Debt Crisis Has Moved Its Leaders from Partners to Rivals

    The impacts of the Faye-Sonko rupture could go well beyond the country’s borders.

      • Dr. Lesley Anne Warner

      Lesley Anne Warner

  • Participants in the 4th Meeting 'In Defense of Democracy' | Pool Moncloa/Fernando Calvo
    Paper
    Post-U.S. International Democracy Support: Aspiration in Search of Substance

    The reinvention of democracy support needs to be carried forward without the clear leadership of one dominant player.

      Richard Youngs, Thomas Carothers

  • Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, speaks during a campaign rally of the governing Fidesz Party in Pecel, Hungary, on March 28. The rally is part of the Prime Minister's nationwide campaign trail before the Hungarian General Election scheduled for April 12.
    Paper
    Orbán, Fidesz, and Hungary’s Populist Foreign Policy

    Hungary under Viktor Orbán deployed right-wing populism as a foreign policy strategy, embedding the country in a web of illiberal transnational networks whose legacy will endure even after his April 2026 electoral defeat.

      Zsuzsanna Végh

Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie global logo, stacked
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NWWashington, DC, 20036-2103Phone: 202 483 7600
  • Research
  • Emissary
  • About
  • Experts
  • Donate
  • Programs
  • Events
  • Blogs
  • Podcasts
  • Contact
  • Annual Reports
  • Careers
  • Privacy
  • For Media
  • Government Resources
Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
© 2026 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All rights reserved.