the second largest in the world (after that of the United States); China's economy is predicted to reach the number three spot in less than twenty years. The value of the United States' economic trade with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region exceeds that with Europe (Wilborn, 1996, pp. 244-247).
In light of the above discussion, it is clear that economic objectives, rather than political or physical objectives, will best advance this interest. In fact, as will be discussed below, focusing too much on military issues may be detrimental to achieving the objectives. Instead, U.S. leaders must focus more upon economic cooperation with countries in the region to encourage open markets. Pursuit of those objectives which can be attained by more traditional military means must be carried out more carefully than before in order not to create greater antagonism than absolutely necessary.
The first, and most important, objective in the Asia-Pacific region is opening economic markets which have been closed to the United States and its Western allies and keeping them open. Obviously, the most important market in the region is that of China, which has the largest population of any country in the world and which likely have the third largest economy in the world within twenty years. The sheer size of the Chinese economy makes it the most important focus of American foreign policy in the foreseeable future. This importance is intensified by the fact that China is no longer an undeveloped nation, but an industrializing one whose economy is already growing faster than that of almost any other country. Moreover, the end of the Cold War reduced the danger of a nuclear conflict between the United States and the countries of the former Soviet Union to the point that tra
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