It’s Interdependence Not Independence: The New World Economic Paradigm
By Michael Boyajian
David Marsh in a recent New York Times Op-Ed piece suggested that the problem with the German led bailout of Greece was that the United States was involved to the extent that the President was urging things to move forward to protect world markets. Marsh felt that this defeated the purpose of the European Union which was for Europe to become independent of the U.S.
Actually what happened was that the world took another step towards world unity and the world peace that ensues. The U.S. and Europe are so interlocked that they need one another and find strength through unity. If one fails then so do both. If Greece alone fails so does the whole world.
Evidence of world unity can also be seen in the interdependence between China and its biggest customer Europe. Once again if Europe were to fail so would China’s industries. So any actions by China must take into consideration their effect on Europe.
Unity also exists between China and the U.S. China cannot jeopardize its relationship with the U.S. because if harm should fall upon the U.S. China would lose its rather large investment in American debt. America is also a large market for Chinese exports. In contradistinction the U.S. must consider its actions when dealing with China for fear of losing its major source of credit and inexpensive goods.
These examples can extend to many other nations as well including Russia as an energy exporter to Europe and so on. The trick however is to bring in nations that fall outside this interdependence. These would be nations like North Korea and Iran. Perhaps these nations would lose their belligerence if they were more entwined with the world economy, if their people were more accustomed to a certain standard of living brought on through a stronger position in the world economy.
Therefore the solution to dealing with these nations is not the threat of boycott or sanctions but linking with the economies of other nations so that any harm they inflict on others will also harm themselves’ and lead to a more thoughtful approach to world affairs out of general self interest. So it is interdependence not independence that is the seed that leads to the fruit of conflict avoidance. And that is the new world economic paradigm.
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