In other words, in Asia political conflicts over interest-based assets, usually involving power politics
or economic assets, are frequently conducted by groups that usually act from a “micro-national”
perspective. The non-cultural conflicts in Asia thus often prove to hinge on a set of interests based
in cultural experiences and concepts: In these cases, the interest in the distribution of power in a
state or of resources or prosperity is linked back to regional-particularist considerations.
By contrast, the erstwhile great significance of leftist groupings has been dwindling since the mid-
1970s – long before the end of the Cold War many of the battles had been fought and the front
lines had become rigid (see chart 7). While the raw data since the end of the 1990s suggests there
has been a “renaissance” in the involvement of such groups in conflicts, the trend is geographically
limited. It almost exclusively extends only to the Indian subcontinent. The demise of the leftist revolutionary
groupings has persisted in the rest of Asia.