Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Atlanticist Preoccupations and the Importance of Asia. This is kind of just a video I just thought of making, something I have kind of been percolating in the back of my brain. I find it really fascinating that Americans especially, I understand Europeans and the British for example being very Atlantic oriented because they are in the Atlantic, fully in the Atlantic. They are not anywhere else physically although, yeah you could argue the British maybe because of their colonies and some things like that and the Europeans have a presence outside the Atlantic, please don't burn me in the comments for saying: "oh Europeans only stay in the Atlantic!" That is not what I am saying here. What I'm saying is it is a paradigm, this sort of Atlanticist paradigm where sort of the centre of the world is sort of in the Atlantic if you will and the rest of the world is just sort of out there on the periphery doing whatever; I think it was in the Star Wars prequel where Anakin Skywalker is referring to Tatooine, "he says what are you doing out here on the outer rim?" We're sort of way outside the Solar System of where all of the action is so to speak. I think there sort of is kind of an Atlantic preoccupation especially among Americans. I think it's probably because most of the major cities, especially the founding cities in America were in the Atlantic, or sort of on the Atlantic on the Eastern seaboard and for that reason, maybe our focus of attention is often sort of dragged over in that direction. I think it also probably has something to do with it that for example Britain's over there, they are an English speaking country, so again because we have the similarity of language, we constantly are sort of drifting our attention over to what's going on in the Atlantic but the Pacific is a big place and let's not have any illusions moving forward. The action is going to be in the Pacific; the money to be made is going to be in Asia over the course of the coming months and years.

I even think, I did a recent video talking about what I thought might be a so-called Yuasa Shift where the sort of the epicentre of technological innovation and discovery may be shifting sort of away from Silicon Valley. I think it is going to explode quite honestly in the Pacific Rim, the Pacific region what is sometimes referred to as the Indo-Pacific now which is kind of a new term, but I kind of get it because India is going to be heavily involved in all of this and then you have got Russian and China who are doing new things and you are going to see increasing dynamism but let's not forget what I guess you could call free Asia: Korea, Japan, down here in Southeast Asia, Thailand and the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia. Then you have got Australasia, like Australia and New Zealand. There's a lot of economic activity; there's a lot going on and there is going to be a lot more going on as Asia continues what can only be described as heavy industrialization. I mean communications, mass communications, mass transportation, energy sector, it's going to explode quite honestly. I don't mean to get hyperbolic here and I don't mean to sort of put too fine a point on it or "over sell it" but man like I get it. There are important things that happen in the Atlantic and that is kind of the cradle of Western civilization if you will but if anybody is looking at any of the metrics associated with Geo-economics, the action is Asia, the action is in the Pacific, it's not going to be in the Atlantic in the future. I am not saying there are not going to be things that happen over there, I am simply saying if you want to know what the future of heavy manufacturing is in the world, you are probably going to want to look over to Asia, you are probably going to want to look over to the Pacific Rim. It's not going to so much be, I just don't see them churning out a lot of oil tankers for example in the Atlantic region to the level that I think it is possible we could see that in the Pacific. Maybe it is not oil tankers, I don't know. Heavy rail, light rail, heavy industrial manufacturing, light industrial manufacturing, communications. Communications I think in Eurasia is going to be huge moving forward not to mention again the Pacific. Then meanwhile, as countries for example like India industrialize or as the ASEAN region continues to industrialize, I would argue Thailand and Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, to some extent Indonesia are kind of in the beginning phases. Thailand probably a little further along than others especially in the rail sector I think with Thailand, but again I even hate the term now being used, "developing". I don't hate it but I just think it's kind of a misnomer. I think the better word is "industrializing". The Pacific countries, the countries here in Asia are industrializing at a rapid rate. Yes you have got Korea and Japan that have already done this and you have sort of the Tiger Nations that did this before and then kind of fell back in the wake of the Asian financial crisis and we sort of had the ramifications of all that. 

Long story short though, at the end of the day and let's go back historically, prior to about 150, 200 years ago, all the economic action was in Asia. That's why you saw a lot of the European powers whose main claim to fame out here was basically just manufacturing better weapons systems, that's what it came down to, but that's why they were out here. They were wanting to interact with these Trade Centres; they wanted to make money quite frankly, that is what it came down to. I think we are seeing a reversion to that mean. I think we are seeing not so much the "rise" of Asia but the return of Asia and the Pacific region to the forefront of geo-economics where it once was some 150 years ago.