This article discusses the dynamic between modernization of Asian cultures and societies and the process of multi- or transculturalization that characterizes an increasingly globalized world. It discusses the concrete case of the Alliance of Civilizations, and studies the possible ways to combine specific Asian axiology with a democratic organization of society. It claims that modernization is not only a social process, but the result of an individual education, and argues in favor of a grow-ing network of civic society, calling for international development ethics and global governance as a resource for governments and citizens. It concludes that the more courses in the issues of international development are taught in those Asian universities that will accommodate them, the better. On the other hand, the concern with these issues should reach secondary education in every nation as awareness of both self and other is paramount to subjectivity.