THE twenty-first century is increasingly shaped by the dynamism of the Asia-Pacific — home to the world’s fastest-growing economies, pivotal technological innovation, and the most consequential geopolitical rivalries. This emerging era will not be defined by a single dominant power, but by an intricate strategic contest resembling the ancient game of Go. Unlike chess, which seeks decisive elimination, Go is a slower, more complex struggle for territory and influence, where patience, positioning, and long-term vision matter more than swift victories.

CHINA, hailed as the progenitor of this ancient pursuit, has assiduously cultivated its philosophical cor- nerstone—the concept of shi (势), denoting the strategic configuration of forces and the fostering of latent momentum. Its statecraft is a manifest application of this principle, orchestrating the regional environment through commerce, infrastructure, and institutional architecture. This ascendancy is not without foundation. China’s inexorable rise has yielded a domestic transformation without parallel, elevating hundreds of millions from poverty, while its Belt and Road Initiative has furnished indispensable capital and development infra- structure across continents.

THE DRAGON’S expansive growth has generated an immense economic “gravitational pull,” diversifying the international landscape and attenuating reliance on Western institutions. The West, contemplating containment at first, has sought to rejuvenate its Cold War alliance networks and promote rival infrastructure initiatives. In turn, Beijing has fortified its entente with Moscow and pursued military modernization, acknowledging the ever-present realities of great power competition.

THIS contest has discovered a new, decisive theater in the realm of agentic artificial intelligence. China, lever- aging its vast demographic data and a decisive national mandate for achieving superiority by 2030, confronts an American enterprise driven by a vibrant ecosystem of private innovation. Their struggle over advanced semiconductors underscores that technological primacy will delineate the future balance of power.

YET as scholars of Confucian heritage will have us believe, Asia’s ingrained traditions of harmony and order render the region less susceptible to destabilizing conflict than Western analyses often presume. This proclivity is institutionalized in a singular architecture of overlapping forums—from ASEAN and the SCO to APEC and the Quad. This complex web provides fluidity and resilience, allowing nations to navigate treacherous geopolitical terrain to their maximum benefit, without resigning themselves to the rigidity of exclusionary blocs.

CONCURRENTLY, the specter of a retrenching United States has stirred profound anxiety among allies. Yet, even the “America First” posture seeks to reinforce Indo-Pacific security frameworks, acknowledging the region’s irreducible centrality to global power dynamics.

GUIDED by the principles of Go, it is time for the region’s actors to engage in a more nuanced game of im- proving everyone’s position on the strategic board. As the distinguished contributors to this issue of Horizons argue, the dawning age of agentic AI is ushering in a future whose contours remain profoundly uncertain—a world in which we cannot be sure that foundational concepts like the nation-state will retain their historical significance. If humanity is to navigate this transformation successfully, it must choose collaborative progress over a fragmented deadlock, forging a century defined by shared, strategic advancement—instead of the stag- nant alternative of a peace without progress.

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