Asia contains more than half the human race and a hefty chunk of the world’s real estate. But only lately is America’s view of Asia turning from apathy to fascination. There is now the feeling of a resurgent power that isn’t yet, but soon will be, a major influence across the globe.

For those interested in learning about it – particularly New York’s business community – the Asia Society is certainly a good place to start. “There’s no other institution quite like us,” Vishakha Desai, the Society’s new president, told The New York Sun. She describes it as a multi-disciplinary educational institution dedicated to strengthening relationships between Asia and the United States through arts and culture, programs on business and social issues, programs for educators and children, and also through conferences and discussions, often involving corporate and political leaders

Ms. Desai was born in India and took a B.A. in political science in Bombay and a Ph.D. in art history at the University of Michigan. After a stint at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, she joined the Asia Society in 1990 and, serving in several capacities, came to know it top to bottom. She also brought to

it a very useful combination of disciplines and an Asian perspective that had been singularly lacking until her arrival.

When the Society was founded by John D. Rockefeller III nearly 50 years ago, learning about Asia was interesting, but rather eccentric. “Today, knowing about Asia is a necessity more than at any other time,” said Ms. Desai. “I feel that we have to be, as Colin Powell said when he spoke here, indispensable for anyone who wants to know about Asia, because we really can bring those two worlds together. And it’s very important that America learns more about that part of the world, because if we don’t we could be in a situation where there could be conflict.”

To promote understanding of Asia among the younger generation in the U.S., the Society is working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to open a series of public schools with an emphasis of international education.

The Society wants to be seen as more than a New York institution with outposts in the U.S. and Asia. “We really must work hard to cultivate an image of being a global institution that just happens to have its headquarters in New York,” said Ms. Desai.

As such, the Society is in no mean position to promote a better understanding of Islam in Asia. Most Americans don’t know that the majority of Muslims live in Asia, not in the Arab world, said Ms. Desai. In Indonesia and Malaysia, for example, Islam has long been fused with multi-ethnic societies and remains rather adaptive in spite of the fact that television and the Internet now introduce more radical ideas.

Ms. Desai travels a great deal, meeting with business leaders, government representatives and nongovernmental organizations, with representatives of the artistic community, and also with the Society’s international council members. In December, she visited seven Asian countries in just over two weeks, and left Indonesia on December 22, just four days before the tsunami struck.

“There are so many distinguished New Yorkers who live right in this neighborhood,” she said, “and still haven’t thought that Asia is going to be an important part of their lives. I would just love them to feel that, if they want to learn more about Asia, this is a place they can come to. It is not just a leisure activity; I think that it is crucial for the next generation.”

New Yorkers tend to see their city as the world’s omphalos. To broaden their horizons, they only have to make it to Park Avenue and 70th Street.