APEC: Economic Integration and Security.

At the beginning of the week the leaders of 21 nations met in Bali, Indonesia to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. According to an APEC report, together the member nations make up 40% of the world population, 44% of global trade, and 53% of world rGDP in terms of purchasing power parity (http://www.apec.org/About-Us/About-APEC/Achievements-and-Benefits.aspx). The meeting of these nations relates perfectly to the topic of economic interdependence and security. In fact, APEC's mission statement declares that "We are united in our drive to build a dynamic and harmonious Asia-Pacific community by championing free and open trade and investment, promoting and accelerating regional economic integration, encouraging economic and technical cooperation, enhancing human security, and facilitating a favorable and sustainable business environment." As discussed, trade between nations tends to lessen the prospect of war as the opportunity costs of fighting increase for trading partners. In such a case, not only must a country expend resources on the mobilization of armed forces, but it loses a foreign market in which to sell it's goods or will no longer be able to import those in which it does not have a competitive advantage in producing. An interesting part to take note of is the mention of "enhancing human security". Human or individual security is a non traditional understanding because it implies that safety is important for all citizens and is created from the bottom-up. Furthermore, individual well being is undoubtedly tied to economic security as more prosperous nations are more likely to have lower rates of violent crime. Thus, economic integration, which is expected to boost a nation's economy and increase it's wealth, makes interactions and negotiations between nations more peaceful as well as decreases violence within a society.

Focusing back on the APEC forum, there was a notable absence felt at the meeting this year. Barack Obama, who had previously planned to visit several Asian countries as part of his administration's "Pivot to Asia" foreign policy initiative, was forced to forgo the trip in order to attempt to resolve the government shutdown in Washington and sent Secretary of State John Kerry in his place. Not only did Obama's absence leave "China's president, Xi Jinping, as the dominant leader" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/world/asia/asia-pacific-economic-cooperation-summit.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0), but he has also missed the opportunity to promote the creation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement that seeks to liberalize trade even further and would exclude China. Despite the president's absence, it is clear that the US is attempting to establish closer economic ties with countries in the Pacific Rim, both developed and developing. Some believe that an American presence would counterbalance China's power and would ensure protection for countries in the region (http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/what-exactly-does-it-mean-that-the-us-is-pivoting-to-asia/274936/). The prospect of war between the United States and Asian nations (excluding China) is already extremely low and would be even in the absence of FTA's between APEC members . What remains to be seen is whether further economic integration amidst member nations will be able to dispel military conflict between China and the US or China and other countries in the Pacific Rim.