The 2024 State of Asia Address, with Adam Tooze

From Asia Society Switzerland, this is State of Asia. My name is Remco Tanis. We have work to do if we don't want to be blindsided. We actually want to live in this world, and we first of all have to understand and come to terms with Asia's agency. And that is Adam Tooze delivering the third annual State of Asia address, which Asia Society Switzerland hosted together with the University of Zurich on November 6th, 2024. Adam Tooze is Professor of History at Columbia University in New York. A few years ago, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of its top Global Thinkers. He's written a number of books that have appeared on end-of-year lists at the Financial Times, The Economist, Foreign Affairs, and the LA Times. He's also the author of the very well-read Chartbook newsletter on economics, geopolitics, and history, and he hosts the weekly podcast Ones and Twos. In his State of Asia address, delivered just a day after the US election that will bring Donald Trump back to the White House, Tooze talked about the difference in how Europe and Asia deal with that outcome. He also asked whether Asia is in a polycrisis. 'Asia is in the age of polycrisis. It's both the greatest generator of change and the greatest generator of solutions, and it needs to be, not just because it's got the power and the capacity, but because it's so stressed, and the stakes are incredibly high.' And he warned against drawing conclusions about what's happening in Asia based on anecdotal developments in just a handful of countries. 'We have to understand massive regional diversity, and we have to track events as they happen in real time as history does, something that urgently concerns all of us.' All right, let's get on with it. I'm very happy to bring you the 2024 State of Asia address in full on this episode of the podcast. More information and the transcript of Adam's speech is available on the Asia Society Switzerland website. A link is in the show notes. Over now to the prestigious Aula of the University of Zurich for the 2024 State of Asia address. Here's Adam Tooze.