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Preparing the United States for the Pacific Century
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15153 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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4 / 1989 |
2,154 Words |
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Roger A. Brooks
Roger A. Brooks is director of the Heritage Foundation's Asian
Studies Center. |
Asia always has occupied a romantic corner in the minds of Americans, who have viewed it as a part of the world suffused with adventure, mystery, and exoticness.
More particularly, relations with Asia go back as far as our history, from the beginnings of trade with China in the 1780s, to Japan's opening to the United States in the 1850s. U.S.-Asian relations continued into the twentieth century, from our underwriting of East Asian security in the 1920s through World War II and the two subsequent major wars.
Few can doubt that Asian has again become increasingly important to the United States, particularly during the last two decades. President George Bush must now rewrite American foreign policy. Although policymakers have created a largely Eurocentric perspective for many years, it is time to shift the focus, however slightly, to prepare the United States for its Pacific Century.
There are sound reasons for doing so. In 1987, U.S. trade with Asia totaled almost $241 billion, compared with $170 billion with Europe. America's markets in Europe, moreover, have been steadily shrinking, with the continent's share of U.S. exports down by nearly 12 percent between 1970 and 1985. By the end of this century, American trade across the Pacific is expected to be at least double that of trade across the Atlantic.
Japan, the Republic of China on Taiwan, and South Korea, respectively, are America's second, fifth, and seventh largest trading partners. Japanese direct investment in the United States alone was $34 billion in 1987, while U.S. direct investment
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