A Recommended Link

A couple of years back I was introduced to Nayan Chandra's book Bound Together from a recommendation by Thomas Barnett as he prepared for his recent book, Great Powers. A major hat/tip goes out to the folks at The China Beat for introducing Yale Global online which is edited by Chandra.

Connectivity has been a major theme of this blog since it's founding and the addition of Yale Global is a welcome link to further understanding our world. This doesn't mean to underscore the achievements of my home country. On the contrary, it serves to illustrate the spread of the very source code of capitalism and free trade that originated on this continent and spread to all corners of the globe.

In keeping with a history theme, here is a series of articles linked by The China Beat that illustrates how the trade of food staples, spread around the world.

Here is a tease to whet your interest.

Whether it is mocha java, a cuppa joe, or half-decaf, skim, no-whip latte, coffee seems to be everywhere - even in Beijing's Forbidden City. But this ubiquitous pick-me-up was not always so prevalent, nor was it always so popular. At varying times a carefully guarded secret, and at others a banned drink, this has not prevented the dark brew and its aroma from spreading from its place of origin in Ethiopia to the entire world.

The story has it that coffee was discovered by an attentive Ethiopian goatherd who noticed a frenzy that overcame his flock after eating the ripe berry. From Ethiopia coffee moved to Yemen where it was cultivated for centuries before arriving in Turkey in 1453. It was in Turkey that the seeds were roasted and then mashed and mixed with water, similar to our modern version.

read more: coffee,

And for those who enjoy a Churchill now and then.

Amerindians introduced tobacco to other European explorers, sailors and settlers - but the plant would never have made the jump to European culture without the help of physicians. They seized upon the notion that many Amerindian cultures valued tobacco as a powerful healing agent. They did not share the Amerindian belief in the supernatural character of illness, but Europeans were eager to discover new plants from the New World with healing properties. In their zeal for finding herbal remedies, these doctors did not realize that they were promoting a major source of disease.

Read more:tobacco,

and chilis, tea, tomatoes, and potatoes,

Enjoy!

Five Good Reads for a Sunday Afternoon

Shawn of Asia Logistics wrap has begun a series of posts that will address the importance of a secure global supply chain.

Shawn explains his series:

In this series of posts starting with this introduction, I will do the following:

1. Explain Dr. Barnett's "Ten Commandments of Globalization" in the context of Asia-Pacific maritime security and trade.

2. Describe the current, key concerns supply chain managers have in regards to maritime security in the Asia-Pacific.

3. Summarize the potential "flashpoints" that would threaten maritime security and their potential impact on key supply chain nodes in the Asia-Pacific.

4. Comment on the role of security in existing cross-border, government-level discussions of logistics integration in Northeast Asia (China, Korea, and Japan).

5. Speculate on the possibility of a formal, comprehensive maritime security regime coming to fruition in the Asia-Pacific.

Despite the fact that I have no experience in the military, the military-market nexus is intriguing and of strong interest to me in the development of my supply chain knowledge. As a result, I look forward to the process of writing on these topics.

Read more: Maritime Security and Trade in the Asia-Pacific, Introduction

Shawn continues with this post that adds detail to his introduction.
Maritime Security and Trade in the Asia-Pacific, The Ten Commandments of Globalization.

The Bellum: A Stanford Review Blog. makes these observations about North Korea.

The Hermit Kingdom has been getting awfully crabby in recent headlines, and Bellum proposes that it’s time to step back and formulate a recourse to the inevitable: Parallel to intimating that it will shoot down South Korean aircraft that enter its airspace during the course of war games with the United States and that it will confront the “puppet state” on its disputed western sea border, North Korean authorities claim that they will soon launch an innocuous “communications satellite” that it has been preparing since January. Of course, as with most snarky announcements out of DPRK’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, the noise has got analysts up in arms on suspicions that the object-in-question may instead be a malevolent Taepodong-2 missile capable of reaching the western United States (and thereby picking up where Yasuyo Yamazaki left off in 1943, harrying Aleut-Americans just trying to go about their business). Upon further inquiry, NK’s spokesman betrayed juche by responding with a Buddhist coan, legacy of an earlier subjugated age: “One will come to know later what will be launched”. Zen indeed.

Read more:

North Korea: Curbing Missile Diplomacy

And finally China based Shanghaiist has these two posts that add a measure of levity to the weight of confronting the really serious issues of the day.

The Adult Care Expo is in town and we, being the naughty naughty chlidren we are, decided to give it a look see earlier this morning. Was it everything we hoped it would be? Unfortunately, no. As one vendor informatively told us, the expos in Hong Kong and Macau are much bigger and rowdier - the Shanghai market for sex-related goodies just hasn't matured yet. Still, there was plenty to giggle at and we've documented it for those of you too prudish to go yourselves.

Read more:

Photos: Shanghai Sexpo

and for those under eighteen or too prudish to see the humor in the above post:

Pssst, guess what? The six story monolith to America's favorite representation of unattainable beauty standards has now been fully realized! Today, the 3400-square-foot Barbie flagship shop on 555 Huai Hai Zhong Road opened its doors officially and let in the public. The Barbie-adoring masses were greeted with a building that not only contains dolls and their clothes, but a fashion design center, a runway chock full of models dressed up in Barbie clothes, a Barbie day spa, and even a cafe.

Read more:

Barbie megastore now open on Huai Hai Road

Ten Questions with Thomas P.M. Barnett

Three days in release, and Thomas Barnett's new book, Great Powers: America and the World After Bush is number six and seven on Amazon's top ten, non-fiction list for the most popular books on politics and International Relations.

Part of my continuing focus on recommending this book will be to highlight an interview of Tom, by Mark Safranski, of Zenpundit at Small Wars Journal.

The stand out sentence that describes what Great Powers is about is best illustrated by this paragraph in Barnett's response to Mark's first question.

"What is “grand strategy” and why is it vital that America have the right one?"

So the book’s really about navigation, which is the essence of grand strategy, and I designed it to be an intellectual journey akin to John Boyd’s OODA loop: I want you, the reader, to observe where we are now in history (post-Bush), then orient yourself in America’s long-standing grand strategic arc (our American System-cum-globalization), then decide on a series of strategic realignments (economic, diplomatic, security, technological, social) I think we need to make as a nation in the days ahead, and finally act by doing what you can to bring it about.

I think everybody in this super-empowered age needs their own foreign policy, I just want my “300”--million, that is—all paddling in the same direction, because if we don’t move faster than the current, we are simply moved by the current.

To help understand this concept is this short primer. The John Boyd Roundtable, Debating Science, Strategy, and War

Another key area that has been written about on this blog, is China.

Part of Tom's response to question 9, incorporates thoughts that I have expressed before, A String of 600 Year Old Pearls and Chimerica? A Team of Rivals?

The strategic implications of a rising China has figured prominently in your writings and Great Powers is no exception. Why is China today more like Teddy Roosevelt’s America to our Great Britain and not like the Kaiser’s Germany?

But more to the point, China’s never—across its thousands of years—displayed any real ambition for empire beyond its historical borders, and if you check out the emerging middle class in China, there’s simply no stomach for it. Not too many parents over there are looking to send off their one child to die in some great power war that self-destructively eliminates its most important economic bond to the outside world—access to America’s markets and technology.So the simplest explanation of why China won’t be Kaiserian Germany or Nazi Germany is that we’ve already infected its society with the sort of consumerism and middle-class ambition that makes that path simply inconceivable to a populace with a reasonably clear sense of what’s possible in terms of great-power conquest in this world.

Read the whole interview for a primer on why this book is important to every American.
Ten Questions with Thomas P.M. Barnett

Other fellow bloggers have been adding their voice to recommend this book.

Information Dissemination who says this about: Great Powers: America and the World After Bush.

Four Days and Counting!

In my continuing effort to promote what I consider a must read for understanding America's role in the future, I am linking an update on Thomas Barnett's latest comments about his book, Great Powers. order GP.

Tom begins by explaining the importance of chapter Three, being the center-piece of the book.

The original title (checking my hard copy print-out) was "The American Arc." In an edit with Mark, I changed it to "The American Trajectory," which Neil liked a lot better. Mark came up with the subtitle, "Of Great Men and Great Powers"--a nice tie-back to the book as a whole.
I will say that I put in more effort on this chapter than any other. To me, it was always going to be the centerpiece of the book--as in, buy this logic and the entire book makes sense. In that way, it is very much like the large chapter 3 in PNM, meaning it's the intellectual anchor to the entire book.

If you look back over the blog, you realize how long it took me to write the intro and the five sections. I was going to have a sixth section about the post-Cold War world, but when I got to the end of the Cold War section, I realized that the first two chapters, plus my first two books, have covered that timeframe in great depth, so the repetition here wasn't worth pursuing. There is good repetition (establishing a theme) and there is everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink repetition, and I felt that re-covering the post-Cold War era would be too much.

Commenting from the viewpoint of someone who has been teaching American history to returning adults in pursuit of their BA's and MBA's, I naturally gravitate to seeing the value of this chapter in explaining the "American Brand" on globalization.

The section headers reveal Tom's wicked logic in writing this chapter.

"IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT GLOBALIZATION ..." is obviously based on the preamble to the Constitution.

I started the section by stating that there are three fundamental reasons why American grand strategy matters more right now than any other country's and then, true to form (I just did it on the blog), I provided 4 reasons. I caught that one in a subsequent edit.

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM: PROPOSED AND IMPOSED
The early nod to the Brits here, courtesy of Walter Russell Mead, is amended later in the chapter, thanks to my education at the hands of the Dutch in The Hague last year. The Dutch example yields New Amsterdam/New York, and that centerpiece city defines a great deal of the American System's ethos. See Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World, which the Dutch gave me as a going-away present, along with a gorgeous china plate. The Dutch maintain that the Glorious Revolution is oversold.

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM: TESTED AND TRANSFORMED
The track-back here goes to Andrew Jackson.

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM MATURED, THEN EXTRAPOLATED: My original was something along the lines of "The American Global System Proposed, Then Imposed."

A GLOBAL AMERICAN SYSTEM, AN AMERICAN CENTURY

Great bit about the logic of diplomacy and how the neocons forget that history.

I start this section with a quick, overarching history, because I want to then move into the 14 points section where I make direct comparisons between Wilson (proposing) and FDR/Truman (imposing). I just felt that doing the former and then the latter would be too repetitive, so better to do them both comparatively in one fell swoop.

THE GLOBAL AMERICAN SYSTEM BECOMES GLOBALIZATION

I start with a mini-history of the Cold War before turning to my two big characters: Nixon and Reagan.

.... My ode to Nixon and Kissinger uses both of their autobiographies and Margaret MacMillan's book on Nixon meeting Mao. Basic point: Reagan completes Nixon like Truman completed FDR, but without Nixon and FDR, neither Reagan or Truman would have been possible in terms of their global impact.

Adding my two cents, the United States had always been interested in globalization. Even Presidents most can't remember, played an important role. Consider the actions of our 10th. John Tyler who saw the importance of the Asian Pacific region to trade. He was the first President to send a diplomatic mission to China which was able to open consular and commercial relations between China and the United States. This led to having the same trade concessions that the then "Great Power" Britain enjoyed.

Our 11th. James K. Polk, Tyler's successor, had as one of his "Great Measures" the goal to acquire Mexican California. Gold had not been discovered there yet, but Polk wanted California and its magnificent San Francisco Bay as the American gateway to trade with China and other Asian nations. Polk was worried that other nations, such as England or France, might take California if the United States did not act. Can you imagine the quality of life we American's might be enjoying had these two Presidents not had the vision to look to connecting the Pacific region? Sailing east, past Europe and Africa or through the Straits of Magellen would have left us a pawn to other powers.

The actions of Tyler and Polk, helped to trigger our ability to reach the position in history that makes reading Great Powers: America and the World After Bush an important guidebook to our future as a nation.

Read more:

Director's Commentary On Chapter Three »

Chapter four, addresses the coming realignment and as Tom writes, "The race to the bottom of the pyramid."

There was no question in my mind that the realignment chapters would start with economics. This goes back with me all the way to the original Brief (looking at alternative global futures in the 1995-96 timeframe) where I did the six-lenses (econ, pol, tech, soc, enviro, sec). You always start with the economics when you're a determinist like me (the one part of Marx I still like).

The title is clearly a take on C.K. Prahalad's very cool book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. He and I gave dueling briefs at a Highlands Forum (special floating think tank community that convenes several times a year to look at issues for a senior defense office) that wanted to examine the SysAdmin concept (back when DoD 3000 was taking shape and new hires to that policy office were given PNM as source reading). C.K. and I bonded immediately. He told me that PNM was the pol-mil book he would have written if he had gone in the field, and I basically told him the same about his book and development economics, so we were like blood brothers on the spot. I felt the same way when I finally met Martin Wolf in Australia at the regional Davos meet. It's just that cool clicking together that some people get to enjoy. Plus, both C.K. and Martin are just such cool, fun, friendly guys that it's just neat to hang around them for a bit and be able to say you know them.

The section headers:

THE UNDENIABLE TRAJECTORY: DENG CHOSE WISELY
The tagline here was inspired by that old knight at the end of the third Indiana Jones movie who, when Indy asked about the dead guy in the corner, replied, "He chose unwisely." I always loved that line.

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM PERTURBED: 3 BILLION NEW CAPITALISTS REGISTER THEIR DEMAND
The "3 Billion" bit comes from Clyde Prestowitz, whose book I cite earlier in the text. I met him in Australia at the Davos regional meet too, and I found him a fairly prickly porcupine. Smart guy, but very sarcastic and cynical. I seemed like an innocent angel next to him on the two panels we shared.

THE NEW RULES: CHINA BREAKS THE MOLD OR MERELY RECASTS IT?
This section is based on the Baumol et al. book, Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, which I highly recommend. The first version of this section was pretty long, and I went whole-hog on the book and gave all sorts of additional reasoning and even a model of sorts regarding evolution of economies.

THE NEW NORMAL: DEFAULTING TO THE BEIJING CONSENSUS
I thought the wordplay here was also neat in a financial sense (like defaulting on loans or debt), especially when linked to China.

I definitely get off on a rant against neo-Marxism here, but it truly represents my passionate rejection of that bullshit analysis. I got fed all manner of this junk in college in the early 1980s. It sucked then and it sucks now. And I especially like sticking it to this crowd during the current financial crisis, because it's one thing to be a fan of capitalism when it hums along and another thing to keep believing in it when it screws up royally. Yes, this ninnies have their moment now, but that's all it is.

THE GLOBAL ACCELERANT: RUSHING TO SETTLE FRONTIERS
Starts with the globalization-replication slide I still use in the brief.
(188)
The peace dividend/grand strategic argument that now serves as the opening section of my brief.
(190)
China gets old before it gets rich.

THE INESCAPABLE REALIGNMENT: REMAPPING FAKE STATES
Could have done some bit here on a new global financial order, but I wanted to keep the book/chapter more focused on the Gap
(197)
Paul Collier's stuff really is brilliant. His Bottom Billion deserved every award it got.
Favorite bit extrapolated by me: only 1% of Core features landlocked, resource-deprived countries, but one-third of Africa suffers this postcolonial fate.

THE BETTER NORMAL: RACING TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID
(202-04)
My ode to Prahalad.
(205-06)
Bit on Africa, leveraging the World Bank report. I wrote that in, and then later repurposed as tighter column. Mark cut the original out completely, but like before, I talked him into putting back at least the tighter, column version. So the columns saved two chunks of this chapter.

Read more:

Director's Commentary On Chapter Four: The Economic Realignment: Racing To The Bottom Of The Pyramid

A complete list of Tom's books The Pentagon's New Map, Blueprint For Action, and Great Powers.

Remember only five days before the release. order GP.

ARRH! AHOY MATIES WE HAVE A PLAN!

16th Century Pirate Attack

Incidents of Piracy, 2007

U.S. Navy Group

Earlier this week I wrote a post entitled Should We Hang Them From The Highest Yardarm in The Fleet?. I commented that the U.S. Navy needed to adjust it's forward thinking to encompass the changing dynamics of naval strategy in the 21st century. In my final comments I noted that I was no expert in naval strategy, proof of that statement is this post by Galrahn, the grand scribe of Information Dissemination, who in my opinion, understands naval strategy better than anyone outside the Navy.

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His post today, answers all who questioned why the U.S. Navy does not do what the Russians propose, MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia, which sent a warship to Somalia's coast to combat pirates, has asked the African country for carte blanche to use force in its territorial waters.

Galrahn in his wisdom, addresses the concerns voiced by some of his readers this way.

This has been an incredible week for the United States strategic goals for fighting piracy, indeed this might have been the best week the United States has had in its strategic goals of curbing piracy this year. I got about 50 emails from a number of folks highlighting various news articles regarding the actions off Somalia, and I thank everyone who sent an email, but if you an American observing events unfolding and thinking these events represent a bad thing, I hate to be the one to tell you but you are completely missing the point when it comes to the strategic goals of the United States. Every American should be fist pumping the good news, and should avoid being misled by the media spin.

....What do you mean you don't understand? If you read this blog for any reason at all, hopefully it is so you can see the big picture and that when big events occur, you can properly place context to the event in strategic terms towards our national goals. The US policy for Somali piracy is well articulated in the maritime strategy, and is working exactly as defined. The US Navy, and the DoD at large, does not define policy, the Navy's job is to enforce national policy.

The logic of our maritime strategy becomes clear. The U.S. by holding back, is using a little reverse psychology on the rest of the World, to encourage them to take part in policing the seas. The cost of the United States maintaining a 1000 ship fleet would break our treasury. But, using our ships as the primary kinetic energy sea control system and enlisting via diplomacy, other nations with an interest in maritime security, we will achieve one of our 21st century strategy goals.

Galrahan' s post:

Observing the Strategic Success of US Policy Towards Somali Piracy

And by good fortune, Thomas Barnett in his column this week addresses the piracy problem and throws his considerable strategic vision behind what Galrahn has written. Barnett's column was posted the same day as Galrahn's, showing how great minds can independently come to the same conclusion.

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Barnett opens with this observation:

When piracy threatens global commerce, great powers need to fight back --collectively.

Nothing better signals the lack of -- and thus opportunity for -- comprehensive maritime security cooperation among the world's great powers than their collective inability to stem piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Persian Gulf, not to mention the Straits of Malacca -- chokepoint for Asia's energy imports from the Middle East. Add it all up and we're talking $15 billion of losses every year.

And this about how a "thousand ship navy" can be had.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has long promoted a "thousand ship navy" that would render the world's oceans transparent and safe. Since we can barely afford the 200-odd ships we currently deploy, Mullen's vision necessarily encompasses all great-power navies. I constantly advocate a security dialogue with Iran, and there would be no better place to start than counter piracy.

For now, American naval cooperation with the world's cluster of rising great powers remains far below what it could be, reflecting the Pentagon's preference for planning against future "near peers." Today's global piracy shows this strategic reticence needs to end.

The column:

Barnett: Fight the pirates

And for a view from the other side. From Reuters, this report.

BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) – As dawn breaks over the Indian Ocean each morning, elders in Somali pirate bases sip strong coffee and clutch mobile phones to their ears, eager to hear the latest from the gunmen out at sea.

Have any more ships been hijacked or ransom talks concluded? Any news of the Western warships hunting them?

Ransoms bring wealth to Somali pirate bases

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Stepping back into my historian mode, piracy is as old as seafaring, and the need to control it is a measure of the financial pain endured before the trading partners affected will react. I am reminded of a passage in The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell. They have this to say about piracy in antiquity.

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Raiders need traders upon which to prey, then. But those raiders are also, in a stronger sense, part of the world of trade; they are not just parasites. Like the transfer of goods between aristocratic estates or like government requisitions, piracy is simply another form of redistribution in an economic environment where other markets are often scarce. Aristotle rightly listed piracy as a mode of production alongside the more usual forms, such as hunting, fishing and agriculture.

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Horden and Purcell's study of the history of the pre-industrial Mediterranean, is rich with examples of piracy and it's untended role in advancing trade and security. As they note, it was Pliny the Elder, who alleges that it was fear of pirates that encouraged winter sailing.

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The result of this latest round of piracy is leading to better cooperation between nations, that in turn leads to relationships that help to dissolve mistrust.

The Silk Road, Back to The Future

Zhang Qian, Silk Road Pathfinder

Kingdoms visited by Zhang Qian

Zhang being received by Emperor Wu, on his return.

Route under taken by Zhang

New Trade on and Old Route 2008

One of my favorite topics in history is the role that trade routes played in connecting developing civilizations together. The result of these connections has led to previously isolated people becoming able to exchange goods, agriculture, technology, and ideas. Yesterday, I read an article in Business Week that I was going to write about. This morning, I found that Steve DeAngelis of Enterra Solutions had written an excellent post The New Silk Road, based on the same article I was reading.

Steve begins:

Business Week magazine recently published an "Emerging Market Report" that claims "historic bonds between the Middle East and Asia are being revitalized in a torrent of trade and investment in energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing" ["The New Silk Road," 18 November 2008 print edition]. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched the development of the global economy. Even with oil prices hovering around $55/barrel, the national coffers of oil producing nations continue to fill and they are looking east to Asia (rather than to the West) for answers to the current recession. In effect, the article claims that the old silk road is being revitalized -- sort of.

The post is well stated, and supported excerpts from the Business Week article. It is worth reading.

As Steve notes:

The new silk road is likely to operate as long as the old one did. It's a virtual road that connects that connects wealth, resources, and opportunities. Companies that want to get in front of the money are going to have to travel that road and the sooner they get on it the better.

Putting my historian hat back on, I decided to offer some background to how the "Silk Road " a name first coined by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in the 1870's, came to be.

We know the origin of the founding of the silk road from the writings of Chinese historian,Sima Qian who wrote the Records of the Grand Historian while serving as a scribe for Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. I had written a post about Qian, The World's Most Dedicated Historian who gave up his testicles in order to continue his life's work.

But I digress, the hero of this story is a little known officer in the palace guard of the Emperor Wu. The emperor sought an envoy to travel west across Central Asia to make an alliance against the Xiongnu nomadic turkic tribes also know as the "Huns." The envoy, Zhang Qian went on a quest that lasted thirteen years, including being captured twice by the Xiongnu, before returning to make a report to the emperor. After escaping the first time, Zhang continued on his journey and visited several kingdoms in Central Asia. On the return journey to China, Zhang was again captured and talked his way out of being killed, by agreeing to remain in the court of the leader of the Xiongnu. He soon was able to make his escape and returned to China with tales of the great horses, their food, alfalfa, along with seeds for grapes and cucumbers.

Zhang Qian's story is perhaps the greatest unknown adventure story today. Westerners know of Marco Polo, William of Rubruck, even Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta, but almost no one has ever heard of Zhang Qian, the pathfinder of the Silk Road.

Zhang's detailed report stimulated Emperor Wu's interest in the goods that existed on the other side of the known world. Within a few years, other expeditions opened the route and lined it with military posts. The Xiongnu were pushed back, and trade flourished under the umbrella of security and the Silk Road linked the great empires of the 1st century Common Era spreading goods, ideas along with the negatives, like disease's Antonine Plague, that today's medical historians see as possibly contributing to the downfall of the Roman and Han Dynasties.

Over the centuries the route fell out of use as dynasties in the west and east fell. the road began to flourish again under the Tang Dynasty 618–907 and continued for the next several centuries to be the main conduit between East and West, only to again fall out of use with the rise of sail and European naval dominance.

For more on the Silk Road.

Asia Logistics Wrap, A View From The East.

Part of the fun of blogging is meeting others with ideas that cause one to stop and ponder their thoughts. One of those people is Shawn Beilfuss, host of Asia Logistics wrap. Shawn writes from Tokyo as he travels throughout Asia setting up global supply chain systems.

Shawn has recently written several informative posts covering a broad range of subjects related to the global supply chain. His latest is how The Financial Markets and Supply Chain Impacts both goods-oriented and services-oriented supply chains.

He writes in part:

Focusing on the 'financial architecture' of supply chains, basically the biggest worry is operational financing and the degree to which firms have to raise cash via bank loans or through issuing investment vehicles such as corporate shares or corporate bonds.

Moving on to address free trade. Shawn uses a play on words to hammer home his message.

Flipping Asia the Byrd on Fair Trade.

He begins:

The Wall Street Journal published an editorial September 11 regarding legislation strongly supported by primarily two US congressmen to undercut fair trade with Japan, Korea, and China, amongst other countries. This is a follow-up to a more lengthy article on August 11 and inspired a response from the two congressmen, Democratic Senator Byrd of West Virginia and Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, in a letter-to-the-editor. Unfortunately, support for the Byrd Amendment--otherwise known as the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act--is bipartisan.

Finally as a piece de resistance Shawn examines US Presidential Candidates on Foreign Affairs/Trade with Northeast Asia.

In a detailed post Shawn outlines the positions of each candidate, with supporting links to their stated postitions. He begins:

In terms of foreign affairs and foreign trade, there is never a dull moment in Northeast Asia. This region demands a considerable amount of attention from the US President and his (Senator McCain or Senator Obama) administration across a wide range of topics and issues....

Although the Vice Presidential candidates have attracted much attention, I want to explore first the history of decisions and/or opinions of Senator McCain and Senator Obama in regards to Northeast Asia. The VP picks traditionally follow the President's lead in shaping policy. I will attempt to let the candidates' words and decisions speak for themselves and refrain from conjecture. In the process, I expect to find more material for Senator McCain due to his depth of experience compared with Senator Obama. Where I could not find any significant material, I will state so as 'Not Available'.

This post is one of the most detailed comparisons of what we can expect from the two men running for President of the United States, in regard to their views on Asia. Shawn concludes his post by adding his comments:

In reality, the President, once elected, will be flanked with advisors and policy experts to help solidify the approach towards Northeast Asia. So basically two key questions are required:

1. What philosophy, vision and judgement will the candidates bring to the Presidency?

2. What advisors and experts does the candidate surround themselves with?

As seen with President Bush and 9/11, foreign policy assumptions and strategy can be dramatically turned on its head by events that occur during office. This is where philosophy, vision and judgement come into play--the foundation of a candidate's character and what will drive them in a crisis situation.

Most Americans are aware of Northeast Asia to the degree it impacts or influences their lives. In the bigger picture, the overall region will probably register low on the totem pole of Americans' top priorities, but perhaps it is on the radar if you are one of the following people:
Someone whose company or small business exports to Northeast Asia or imports from Northeast Asia

+ Someone who works for a Japanese or Korean auto manufacturer or parts supplier.

+ Someone with a relative that works or lives in Northeast Asia.

+ Someone who is/was based with the US military in Northeast Asia, or knows someone with such experience.

+ Someone in financial services, supply chain consulting or international law familiar with the complexity of a globalized and integrated economy between the US and Northeast Asia.

+ Someone who lost their job due to a production facility and/or services moved to the Asia region

+ etc, etc, etc...

How the election plays out over the next month and a half will be quite interesting and I look forward to following any new developments in the candidates' positions on Northeast Asia.

Take the time to get to know Shawn and explore his world via his excellent blog.

It's The Money Stupid!

Trade beads 500 BC

Ancent Chinese Money

Gold Dubloons

$Money$

"It's the money stupid" has been a refrain, made popular by politicians in recent years. I first heard this term decades ago when a history professor in describing the motivation behind the Age of Discovery exclaimed that, "It was the money, that rich white guys sought, when they expanded across the globe." That quote as politically incorrect as it would be interpreted today, is at the core of what makes the world function. Money, the token of value that allows for easy trade transactions, is also the primary tool of peace.

Examples of societies who gravitated to trade and in turn creating methods of currency, stand out in contrast to those societies whom, only relied on total warfare to restock their community pantry.

Robert Wright the author of The Moral Animal, pointed out that societies that cooperated and avoided conflict thrived, where societies that were constantly at war with their neighbors eventually were cut off from all contact and withered. And Jared Diamond, in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel (1998), gave further support that societies became less violent when they learned through trade, that those they trade become quasi-kin, with whom conflict needed to be resolved quickly, in order to maintain the all important life sustaining trade.

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This week I was reminded of the these two books, and the words spoken by that long ago, history professor about it being the "Money" that makes the World what it is today.

The trigger for that recollection, came when I perused Tom Barnett's column this week. He writes to remind us of a future that is linked to interconnection through trade and in turn, "Money." The product of ecomomic interconnectivity is security and the advancement of civilization, by connecting as many people on the planet to each other through mutually beneficial arraignments. Thus, reducing the likely hood of total war conflict.

Tom writes:

Think about what made America the world's most stable and prosperous democracy for almost a century and a half: the middle class ideology that emerged when we knit together our sectional economies into a continental juggernaut following the Civil War. That class consciousness wasn't born when the victorious North imposed itself on the prostrate South but when the ambitious East integrated the frontier West.

Today's globalization echoes American experience as West networks East and East integrates South, reducing global poverty at speeds never before seen in human history. This international liberal trade order, modeled on our "uniting states," is America's greatest gift to the world.

Read the whole article:

Barnett: Finding logical center for grand strategy

Looking back one week the theme of money and the economic activity to make it is the theme of an earlier column by Barnett.

He begins:

With American combat troops now slated to depart Iraq by 2011, our intervention moves into its final phase, with the crucial goal being the expansion of economic opportunity for ordinary citizens.

When international business looks at oil-rich Iraq, it sees plenty of opportunity. What it doesn't see in many instances, despite rising security, are sufficient local counterparties - both private and public - to make the necessary deals happen.

As America moves on, we must leverage that example to lock in our hard-fought security gains with follow-on economic progress in connecting Iraq to globalization's juggernaut.

Read the whole article:

Barnett: Develop Iraq to cut deals with world

Adding more to the theme today of it being "It's the money stupid," are two posts by Steve DeAngelis, Enterra Solutions blog.

Steve writes:

The news coming out of Afghanistan over the past several months has been mostly bad. Violence is up and development progress has been stymied by the security situation. For most Americans, Afghanistan was the right conflict to undertake following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The fact that progress has been spotty and that the Taliban seems to be gaining strength in their Pakistani sanctuaries has generated calls for an Afghani surge comparable to the one that made a difference in Iraq.

As tense as U.S./Afghan relations might be at the moment, even the Afghans understand the importance of creating a secure environment to foster a better future. Sustainable development requires a stable and secure environment. President of the World Bank Group, Robert B. Zoellick, recently provided his thoughts on how to proceed in Afghanistan ["The Key to Rebuilding Afghanistan," Washington Post, 22 August 2008].

Read the whole story at"

Moving Forward in Afghanistan

And turning to another example of ecomomic progress being the catalsys for permanent change is this post by Steve DeAngelis about North Korea.

North Korea looks to be once again a country in trouble that cannot even feed its own people [see "U.N. says North Korea needs $503 million in food aid," by Ben Blanchard, Washington Post, 2 September 2008]. I have repeatedly asserted that historically economic progress precedes political progress. Impoverished people are much more tolerant of repressive governments if they believe they hold the key to a better economic future.

Anyone that has followed the Beijing Olympic Games has to have been struck by the Western character of the Chinese audience. I don't know if the Chinese government issued grooming and dress standards for ticket holders, but gone were the drab military-style outfits that characterized the awful days of the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese audience was genuinely polite to the achievements of foreign athletes and just as clearly thrilled with the achievements of their own athletes. There was nothing staged about that. Economics has clearly changed China for the better and its citizens are the beneficiaries of most of those changes. That is exactly the kind of changes that the South Koreans would like to see in the North.

Once globalization washes over walls of North Korea's isolation, it will help bring millions of people living there out of poverty. It will do it one job at a time, but it will succeed.

The whole post:

Breaching North Korea's Walls using Economic Development

In reflection of today's links about money, often touted as the root to all evil. I have another take. Money and economic interaction is the essence of kinship that binds people together. Individuals and societies may falter and fail to see this truth for moments in time, but those who recognized this truth will endure.