In the twenty-first century ethnic issues have assumed importance in many parts of the world. Until recently, questions of Asian ethnicity and identity have been treated in a balkanized fashion, with anthropologists, economists, historians, political scientists, sociologists and others publishing their studies in single-discipline journals. Asian Ethnicity provides a cross-disciplinary, international venue for the publication of well-researched articles about ethnic groups and ethnic relations in the half of the world where questions of ethnicity now loom largest.

Asian Ethnicity covers any time period, although the greatest focus is expected to be on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In broad terms the geographical region of concern for the journal is bounded by Lake Baikal to the north, Japan to the east, Java to the south and the Caspian Sea to the west. The most populous, and probably most significant, contemporary political states to be included are China, India and Indonesia