Contemporary Centres of Power Class 12 Solutions

Concept used. The right order is found by placing each event against its founding year, taken from the chapter's own dates. The correct chronological order is (b) Establishment of the EEC → (c) Establishment of the EU → (d) Birth of ARF → (a) China's accession to WTO.

Here is each event with its year, in order:

1. Establishment of the EEC, 1957. The six west European states signed the Treaties of Rome and set up the European Economic Community. This is the oldest event in the list.
2. Establishment of the EU, 1992. The Treaty of Maastricht turned the earlier economic community into the European Union.
3. Birth of ARF, 1994. The ASEAN Regional Forum was set up as the security and foreign-policy wing of ASEAN.
4. China's accession to WTO, 2001. China joined the World Trade Organisation, a further step in opening up to the world. This is the most recent event.

Correct order: (b) EEC, 1957 → (c) EU, 1992 → (d) ARF, 1994 → (a) China joins WTO, 2001.

Concept used. The correct option is (b) A form of interaction among ASEAN members that is informal and cooperative. The ASEAN Way is the term the chapter uses for the style in which ASEAN states deal with one another: informal, non-confrontationist and cooperative, with deep respect for national sovereignty.

Why the other choices are wrong:

1. (a) is wrong. The ASEAN Way is about how members interact, not about anyone's lifestyle or culture.
2. (c) is wrong. ASEAN has little appetite for a shared defence policy or supranational army. The ASEAN Way is the opposite of a binding military doctrine.
3. (d) is wrong. It is not a physical road. It is a diplomatic method, a way of behaving with each other.

Correct option: (b) a form of interaction among ASEAN members that is informal and cooperative.

Concept used. The correct option is (a) China. The ``open door'' policy was the reform announced by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1978. It opened China to foreign capital and technology and began China's shift towards a market economy.

The reasoning, point by point:

1. What the open door policy was. It aimed to raise productivity by inviting investment of capital and technology from abroad, in place of China's earlier closed, self-reliant economy.
2. Who announced it. Deng Xiaoping announced it in 1978, after Premier Zhou Enlai's earlier ``four modernisations'' idea of 1973.
3. Why not the others. South Korea, Japan and the USA each grew through their own paths. The phrase ``open door policy'' is tied in this chapter only to China's 1978 reforms.

Correct option: (a) China, which adopted the open door policy in 1978.

Concept used. Each blank is filled from a named fact in the chapter. The answers are: (a) Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin (Ladakh); (b) 1994; (c) the United States; (d) Marshall; (e) ARF (ASEAN Regional Forum).

The filled statements read:

1. (a) The border conflict of 1962 was principally over Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh, the two areas of competing territorial claims.
2. (b) ARF was established in the year 1994, as the body that coordinates ASEAN's security and foreign policy.
3. (c) China ended its isolation and entered into bilateral relations with the United States in 1972.
4. (d) The Marshall Plan, America's aid programme for reviving Europe, led to the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation in 1948.
5. (e) The ARF (ASEAN Regional Forum) is the organisation of ASEAN that deals with security.

(a) Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin; (b) 1994; (c) United States; (d) Marshall; (e) ARF.

Concept used. A regional organisation is a grouping of neighbouring states that join hands to solve shared problems. States set them up to gain together what they cannot gain alone: faster economic growth, peace within the region, and a louder voice in world affairs. The chapter's two main examples, the EU and ASEAN, show these aims in action.

The main objectives are:

1. Economic growth and prosperity. The first aim is to speed up trade and development. ASEAN was set up ``to accelerate economic growth'' and the EU grew from an economic community into a single market with a common currency, the euro.
2. Peace and stability in the region. Neighbours who once fought wars choose cooperation instead. The EU rebuilt Europe after the Second World War; ASEAN promotes ``regional peace and stability based on the rule of law.''
3. Social and cultural development. Beyond money, members work for social progress and cultural ties, raising living standards across the whole region.
4. A stronger collective voice. Acting as one bloc gives members more weight in bodies like the WTO than any single country would have on its own.
5. Resolving disputes peacefully. They build forums and mechanisms, such as the ASEAN Dispute Settlement Mechanism, to settle quarrels by talk rather than force.

Regional organisations are set up to speed economic growth, keep peace and stability, aid social and cultural development, give members a stronger joint voice, and settle disputes peacefully.

Concept used. Geographical proximity means simply being close together on the map, as neighbours. Closeness shapes regional organisations because nearby countries share the same opportunities and the same problems, so it makes sense for them to act together.

The map of East Asia and the Pacific below shows how the ASEAN members sit side by side in one corner of the world, which is what made their grouping natural.

Proximity influences these groupings in several ways:

1. Shared problems push neighbours together. Countries in one region face the same history. Southeast Asia, for example, had suffered colonialism, poverty and Cold War pressure, so its states had common reasons to cooperate.
2. Trade is easier between neighbours. Goods, labour and services move cheaply over short distances. A free-trade area is far more useful among countries that are next door.
3. Security is linked. A conflict in one country quickly affects its neighbours. Nearby states therefore have a shared stake in keeping the region peaceful.
4. Culture and contact already exist. Neighbours often share languages, customs and old links, which makes cooperation feel natural rather than forced.

Nearby countries share the same history, problems, trade routes and security concerns, so geographical closeness makes it natural and useful for them to band together into a regional organisation.

Concept used. ASEAN Vision 2020 is the long-term plan that ASEAN drew up for itself. Its core idea is to define an outward-looking role for ASEAN in the wider world, while keeping peace inside the region through negotiation rather than force.

The ASEAN flag below stands for this shared vision: the ten stalks of paddy are the ten member states bound together, and the circle is their unity.

The main components of ASEAN Vision 2020 are:

1. An outward-looking role. ASEAN aims to play an active part in the international community, not to stay closed within its own region.
2. Encouraging negotiation over conflict. The vision builds on existing ASEAN policy to settle regional disputes by talking, not fighting.
3. A record of peace-making. Acting on this aim, ASEAN has mediated the end of the Cambodian conflict and the East Timor crisis.
4. Annual dialogue on cooperation. ASEAN meets every year to discuss East Asian cooperation, keeping the region's conversation going.

ASEAN Vision 2020 sets an outward-looking role for ASEAN in the world, encourages settling conflicts by negotiation, builds on its record of mediating disputes, and keeps up annual talks on East Asian cooperation.

Concept used. The ASEAN Community is the deeper union that ASEAN agreed to build in 2003, moving a little along the EU's path. It rests on three pillars: the ASEAN Security Community, the ASEAN Economic Community, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. Each pillar has its own objectives.

The three pillars and their objectives are:

1. ASEAN Security Community. Its objective is to make sure that outstanding territorial disputes do not escalate into armed confrontation. Members promise to uphold peace, neutrality, cooperation, non-interference and respect for one another's sovereign rights.
2. ASEAN Economic Community. Its objectives are to create a common market and production base within ASEAN states, to aid social and economic development in the region, and to improve the ASEAN Dispute Settlement Mechanism for economic quarrels.
3. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. Its objective is to advance social progress and cultural development, binding the peoples of the region closer together.

Three pillars: the ASEAN Security Community (prevent disputes becoming war), the ASEAN Economic Community (a common market and shared development), and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (social and cultural progress).

Concept used. A command economy is one in which the state owns the industries and decides what is produced, as China did under Mao on the Soviet model. The present Chinese economy is a market economy, where private firms, foreign investment and trade play a large part, even though the state still guides it. The cartoon below captures this dramatic change in China's direction.

The key differences are:

1. Ownership. The old command economy was state-owned. The present economy has private farms and private industry, following the privatisation of agriculture in 1982 and of industry in 1998.
2. Openness to the world. The command economy cut its links with the capitalist world and relied on its own resources. The present economy is open: Special Economic Zones invite foreign investors, and China joined the WTO in 2001.
3. Driver of growth. Earlier, growth came from state-run heavy industry. Now it comes from foreign trade, foreign direct investment and fast-growing rural industry.
4. Result. The command economy grew slowly and ran short of foreign exchange. The reformed economy has become the fastest growing in the world, with large foreign-exchange reserves.

The command economy was state-owned, closed and slow-growing; the present economy is privatised, open to foreign investment and trade through SEZs and the WTO, and is the world's fastest growing.

Concept used. After the Second World War, Europe faced the ``Question of Europe'': whether to fall back into old rivalries or to rebuild on shared institutions. European states chose integration, joining their economies step by step until this process produced the European Union in 1992. The EU's own flag, with its twelve gold stars for unity, became the symbol of that journey.

The countries resolved their problems and moved towards the EU like this:

1. American aid: the Marshall Plan. The US gave massive financial help to revive Europe's economy. It also set up NATO for collective security.
2. The OEEC, 1948. Under the Marshall Plan, the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation was formed to channel aid and let west European states cooperate on trade.
3. The Council of Europe, 1949. This added political cooperation to the economic recovery.
4. The European Economic Community, 1957. Step-by-step economic integration led to the EEC, later given a political dimension by the European Parliament.
5. The European Union, 1992. The collapse of the Soviet bloc sped things up. The Treaty of Maastricht created the European Union, laying the base for a common foreign and security policy, cooperation on justice, and a single currency.

Europe rebuilt through US aid (Marshall Plan and NATO), then deepened cooperation step by step: OEEC (1948), Council of Europe (1949) and the EEC (1957), until the Maastricht Treaty created the European Union in 1992.

Concept used. The European Union is influential because it has grown from an economic union into something that acts almost like a single nation state. Its power runs across three areas: economic, political and diplomatic, and military. Together these let the EU shape events far beyond its own borders, even as some internal doubts limit it. The map below shows how widely the EU spread, taking in older and newer members across the continent.

The sources of EU influence are:

1. Economic influence. The EU has a very large economy, projected at about $19.35 trillion in 2024, and its share of world trade is larger than that of the United States. The euro can challenge the US dollar. This lets the EU be assertive in trade disputes and act as an important bloc in the WTO.
2. Political and diplomatic influence. One member, France, holds a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and several members are non-permanent members. The EU uses diplomacy, investment and negotiation rather than force, as in its dialogue with China and its stand on Iran's nuclear programme.
3. Military influence. The EU's combined armed forces are the second largest in the world, and its defence spending is second only to the US. France holds nuclear weapons, and the EU is a leading source of space and communications technology.

The EU's combined symbols, its own flag, anthem, founding date and currency, show that it now behaves like a state in many ways. Yet its influence has limits.

Its huge economy and the euro, its diplomatic weight (a permanent UNSC seat through France, persuasion over force), and the world's second-largest combined armed forces make the EU highly influential, though member disagreements still limit it.

Concept used. A unipolar world is one dominated by a single power, here the United States after the Cold War. To ``challenge'' it means to build rival centres of strength that limit that dominance. On balance, yes, the rising economies of China and India do have great potential to challenge a unipolar world, and the chapter gives clear reasons.

The arguments in support are:

1. China's sheer economic size. China has been the fastest growing economy since its 1978 reforms and is projected to overtake the US as the world's largest economy by 2040. It drives East Asian growth and shapes the world economic order.
2. Deep economic integration. China's trade links and the interdependence they create give it real influence over its partners, including the US, Japan, ASEAN and Russia.
3. India's own rise. India is an emerging economy with a large population, land mass and resources, adopting similar positions to China in bodies like the WTO.
4. India and China together. The two cooperate at the global level in institutions like the WTO and on issues such as bidding for energy deals abroad, adding weight to the developing-world voice.

A balanced view also notes the limits: both still have problems such as inequality and unemployment, and old disputes between them. But their combined economic potential clearly works against a single-power world.

Yes. China's fast growth and global integration, India's emerging strength, and their joint stand in bodies like the WTO give the two great potential to limit US dominance and challenge a unipolar world.

Concept used. The statement claims that countries find both peace and prosperity by building strong regional economic organisations. The chapter supports this through the examples of the EU and ASEAN, which turned regions once marked by war and poverty into prosperous, cooperative orders. The cartoon below, showing the EU as a sinking Titanic, is a useful reminder that such unity must also be kept strong, or it can falter.

The justification runs as follows:

1. They build prosperity. Regional economic bodies speed up trade and growth. ASEAN's economies grew fast through cooperation, and the EU became one of the world's largest economies with a single market and the euro.
2. They build peace. By tying economies together, they make war between members costly and unlikely. The EU healed old European enmities; ASEAN's security community keeps territorial disputes from becoming armed conflict.
3. They settle disputes peacefully. Bodies like the ASEAN Dispute Settlement Mechanism and the ASEAN Regional Forum let members resolve quarrels by talk, not force.
4. They stabilise the wider region. China's help to ASEAN economies after the 1997 financial crisis shows how economic cooperation can calm a whole neighbourhood.

Justified. Regional economic organisations like the EU and ASEAN raise prosperity through shared markets and secure peace by tying economies together and settling disputes peacefully, so peace and prosperity do flow from establishing and strengthening them.

Concept used. Contentious issues are the disputes that strain India-China relations. The chapter names several, rooted in borders, history and third countries. Greater cooperation depends on managing these through dialogue, trade and confidence-building, which the two have already begun.

The main contentious issues are:

1. The border dispute. The 1962 war was fought over competing claims in Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh, and the boundary question is still unsettled.
2. Tibet. Differences arose from the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1950.
3. China and Pakistan. China is seen as helping Pakistan's nuclear programme, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and China's support to Pakistan at the UN against India's counter-terrorism moves are sore points.
4. Military ties in the neighbourhood. China's military links with Bangladesh and Myanmar are viewed as hostile to Indian interests in South Asia.

These can be resolved, and partly already are, by the following steps:

1. Keep talking on the boundary. The two have continued boundary talks without interruption since 1981; this should continue patiently.
2. Grow trade and economic ties. Bilateral trade rose from 338 million in 1992 to over 84 billion in 2017; deeper economic links raise the cost of conflict.
3. Build military and cultural confidence. Military-to- military cooperation, more frequent high-level visits, and cultural and scientific exchanges build trust.
4. Cooperate where interests meet. Both can work together in bodies like the WTO and on shared concerns such as energy deals, turning rivalry into partnership.

Contentious issues: the unsettled border (Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin), Tibet, China's support for Pakistan and the CPEC, and its military ties with India's neighbours. These can be eased through ongoing boundary talks, growing trade, military and cultural confidence-building, and cooperation in forums like the WTO.