This report outlines a number of scenarios for the paths Asia may take in the next 20 years, and what the choice of each of these paths will mean for Russia and its role in Asian affairs. These scenarios do not attempt to make an accurate prediction for specifi c events based on linear projection of current events. Rather, they pursue three goals.
First, the scenarios are designed to identify several of the most important, from our point of view, trends that determine the future of the region and come up with three different scenarios for Asia in the 21st century. Second, alternative scenarios of the future of Asia and Russia in Asia are needed to stimulate our thinking about the threats that we face and opportunities we can take advantage of. Finally, these scenarios and observations that form their basis are supposed to reveal in the course of the discussion the uncertainty factors, which hinder close analysis of the critical processes that determine the current and future developments in this important region.