Table of Contents

Part 1: Prosperity and Discontent 1. Freedom and Responsibility 2. The Asian Boom on the Eve of the Great Recession 3. Asia’s Hunger Test 4. The Loss of Egalitarian Capitalism 5. Damage Control: Can Asia Reduce Environmental Stress? Part 2: Expansion of Freedoms 6. Investing in Just Democracies 7. The End of "Asian Values" and the Spread of Democracy Part 3: Comparison of Asian Development Strategies 8. Conflict and Arrested Development: Pakistan’s Divergence from Eastern Asia 9. Democratic India and Authoritarian East Asia: Are Economic and Political Systems Converging? 10. Responsible Development in a Vulnerable World

About the Author

Omar Noman is Head of the United Nations Development Programme Regional Center in Sri Lanka and was previously the Deputy Director of the Human Development Report Office (HDRO). Prior to working at the HDRO, where some of the key ideas for this book were developed, he taught at Oxford University, UK. With a mix of analytical skills and pragmatic policy experience gained in official missions to nearly 100 countries, he has written books on economics, political change and the environment.