by F.R. Duplantier
It's become faddish in our lifetimes to name each decade according to its defining characteristic. One presumptuous prognosticator has preempted this process by naming an entire century, before it begins.
"During the past decade, the world's center of gravity has shifted," observes Jesse Helms. "And it will continue to move eastward away from Europe, toward Asia," says the senior Senator from North Carolina, "because, as the nations of Eastern Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union were struggling to break free of communism, Pacific Rim nations were busily taking care of business at home." This historic shift will usher in what Helms calls "The Pacific Century."
How will this affect America? It should redound to our benefit. "The Asia-Pacific region currently accounts for more than 40 percent of the world's trade and U.S.-Pacific Rim trade has outpaced trade across the Atlantic," says Helms. "Thankfully for the United States -- though the political and economic center of gravity may have shifted West to East, Europe to Asia -- we remain uniquely positioned . . . at the center. The United States thus remains the world's anchor."
Senator Helms warns, however, that the United States "cannot be the best nation in the world unless we are willing to lead the world. We cannot lead by being the world's policeman, nor the world's babysitter, but by being what we have been for most of the 20th century -- the standard-bearer of moral, political, and military might and right, an example towards which all others aspire."
Current U.S. leadership is not setting that example. "In just a few short years, the Clinton administration has managed to warp U.S.-Asia policy so badly that, at any one time, the United States is at odds with China, Japan, and the Korean peninsula. Right now, many Asian nations fear that we are propelling ourselves down the road to irrelevance," says Helms. "In China, the United States has neither a strategy, nor resolve, for dealing with areas of key interest to the United States. On the Korean peninsula, this administration has given lip service to our allies in South Korea while dealing directly with the North Koreans." Helms says the U.S. must preserve "its role in the dominant region of the 21st century. We must have priorities, and we must stand up for them."
It is in America's best interests to "maintain open and peaceful shipping waters for trade" in the Pacific, says Helms. It is vitally important that we "maintain a strategic balance among China, Japan, the Korean peninsula, and Southeast Asia." It behooves us to "push for more open, less regulated markets for U.S. goods and services," and to "show the nations in the region that we are serious about their adherence to bilateral and multilateral agreements." Helms stresses that we should "strengthen the friendships we maintain with our true allies in the region -- Taiwan and South Korea, to name just two -- rather than coddle dictators because we fear that we might lose market share."
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