The International Business Times wrote an article about the APEC 2011 meeting in Honolulu, and particularly the issues and context of the U.S. – China dialogue. The article describes the relationship between militarization and globalization:
United States Pacific Command
What does a Hawaii-base military organization have to do with global commerce?
The Pacific Command was started in 1947 as a network of regional alliances built to counteract the Soviet presence in the Pacific. The military organization continues in its mission of “deterring aggression, advancing regional security cooperation, responding to crises, and fighting to win” to this day.
This peace and international cooperation has allowed economic development to thrive, especially among the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member states.
“We’ve gotten rich as well and we’ve benefited greatly from economic development in Asia that may not have happened absent the U.S. military presence,” Michael Mazza, a security expert at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, told Reuters.
“We’ve seen over the past 30-plus years the region really blossom both economically and politically and people tend to forget or not even realize a reason for that is that the United States has ensured stability in Asia and the Asia-Pacific,” Mazza added.
Military power still an issue
China has been spending quite a lot of cash on its military, the most of any country in the world after the United States. Last year, China spent $114 billion, which is almost twice what next-in-line France spent (although significantly less than the $700 billion spent by the U.S., which was engaged in two overseas wars). Each consecutive year, that figure gets higher.
China’s rise in military prominence will surely be a topic of discussion, as it has been for the Obama administration in the past.
“China, unlike its Asian peers, does not appear content with the American-made and -dominated international order,” said a report from the Project 2049 Institute.
“Beijing is neither a candidate for the kind of benign hegemonic rule that others would find legitimate, nor much interested in aiding Washington in shouldering global responsibilities.”
Right now, this is a benign security threat to the United States and other Pacific powers. But if unchecked, it could raise serious concerns.
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