The Rise of the Trading State [antikvár]

PREFACE Nineteen eighty-four has passed. There is a breathing space in world politics. Some will see this as only an interlude between episodes of chaos and warfare that must occur in the future as they have before. This philosophy holds that another major conflict, perhaps a nuclear war, will occur. Despite such beliefs, the main thesis of this book is that a new "trading world" of international relations offers the possibility of escaping such a vicious cycle and finding new patterns of cooperation among nation-states. Indeed, it suggests that the benefit of trade and cooperation today greatly exceeds that of military competition and territorial aggrandizement. States, as Japan has shown, can do better through a strategy of economic development based on trade than they are likely to do through military intervention in the affairs of other nations. This does not mean that nations will lay down their arms, beat swords into ploughshares, or abandon traditional arenas of military competition and rivalry. Nor should they precipitately do so: a tolerable balance in world military politics is necessary to permit a trading system to function. But what is interesting and different about the world of international relations since 1945 is that a peaceful trading strategy is enjoying much greater eflicacy than ever before. Through mechanisms of industrial-technological development and international trade, nations can transform their positions in international politics, and they can do so while other states also benefit from the enhanced trade and growth that economic cooperation makes possible. International "openness," low tariffs, efficient means of transport, and abundant markets offer incentives to many nations that have only to find a niche in the structure of world commerce to win new rewards. The returns, as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indo- ix » '