Asia-Pacific Region: Crucial Interest
There are three vital United States interests in the Asia-Pacific region: (1) open access to economic markets; (2) a region free from domination by a single power or power bloc; and (3) governments dedicated to preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Of these three, the first interest is the most crucial because the Asia-Pacific region has the potential for becoming the largest single market for American goods and services and because China and Japan will soon have economies larger than any other countries, save the United States.
The reason why maintaining open economic markets constitutes the most crucial U.S. interest in the region is the growth in importance of economic issues as a whole. During the Cold War, United States policies in Asia were focused upon the containment of communism. With the demise of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, however, containment became obsolete. Although the People's Republic of China remained communist, its government was already exhibiting a willingness to adopt free market principles in its economy and a willingness to cooperate with the United States and its allies in numerous areas. The other communist nations in the region, particularly Vietnam, were too poor and backward to pose any threat to any vital Western interests and themselves were looking for economic cooperation with Western countries. Consequently, the vital interest which had motivated U.S. foreign policy for forty years disappeared once all of its objectives were achieved.
But this interest is not the most crucial simply because the interest in containing communism no longer exists. The reorientation of Asian-Pacific nations towards their own economic interests has created a new world, so to speak. The large population and the spread of education in the region have fueled an astounding rate of economic expansion. As a result, Japan's economy is currently...