In recent years, security issues in certain countries have become less important than economic issues. This research will discuss this phenomenon among countries in four regions of the world: Europe, the Middle East, South America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific Rim.
More and more, the common concern in world events has become one of cooperation rather than of rivalry or warfare. What was unheard of 50 years ago is becoming common today. For example, as early as 1990, the secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, Ichiro Ozawa began a round of talks with the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers to discuss Japanese trade and investment in these two countries and to promote a spirit of cooperation among Pacific Rim countries. The talks were also aimed at coordinating Australian and Japanese views on the development of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, the regional trade and investment group.
In 1992, the six-member Association of South-East Asian Nations, was ready to endorse the idea of an Asian free-trade area within 15 years. The group of nations failed in the past to foster intra-regional trade and investment, but this endorsement was seen as a major step.
Another example of working together for a common good was the development of the Institute for Security Studies, established by the Western European Union (WEU) in 1990. This group concentrated on an analysis of the idea of a security identity for Europe; the future roles and respective limits of the existing bodies including NATO, the NEU, the EC, and the CSCE; the examination of defense issues, including the place of nuclear weapons, the economic aspects of European security, including the economic conversion of defense industries, industrial implications, arms sales, and the transfer of military technology with relevance to the Mediterranean area and the Middle East. While reactions in the European community toward a unified defense a...