World Peace by Alex J. Bellamy

Author:Alex J. Bellamy [Bellamy, Alex J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192570055
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2019-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

This brings us to a second way of counting the costs of war: the opportunity costs. East Asia’s economic growth depended on manufacturing goods and trading them. This focus on trade gave states a stake in stability, its natural prerequisite. For example, it encouraged governments to restrain defence spending, with the effect that East Asian states committed much less of their wealth to armaments than did states in the Middle East. This created a virtuous cycle, since spending less of their national wealth on arms allowed East Asian states to invest more heavily in civilian infrastructure and the national economy. With increasing interaction between countries, domestic business coalitions took on transnational characteristics, strengthening their capacity to influence and their restraining effects.

The best-known critiques of what might be called the ‘commercial peace’ hold that trade poses no barrier to war and that unequal or hegemonic trade practices might actually cause war. For evidence, we need look no further than Europe on the eve of the First World War. In 1913, European trade had reached unparalleled levels; undocumented travel across borders was the norm. Still this proved insufficient to hold back the tide of war. This is a powerful reminder of why we cannot rely on a single mechanism, such as commerce, to carry the burden of world peace. But there is also reason to think that contemporary trade is qualitatively different, and more peace-inducing, than earlier twentieth-century forms.

Whereas, in the past, economic interdependence simply involved the trading of goods between countries, its modern globalized form comprises global production chains where individual components, rather than finished products, are manufactured in different countries. One effect of this is that the realization of a product’s value, and hence the value of each of the components, is dependent upon each part of the chain.37 Thus, as East Asian specialist and political economist John Ravenhill points out, countries depend upon the inputs of others to realize the value of their own production. This effect is compounded by the additional value of global brands and marketing which impact significantly on the value of a component or product. As a result, the potential costs associated with the disruption of trade flows within the global economy have never been greater.38

The final point here is also perhaps the most obvious one. In the modern era, national wealth and wellbeing are achieved primarily through the production and trade of goods, services, and ideas. It is also through these means that states can best achieve their own goals. In what Arendt described as a ‘complete reversal’ in the relationship between power and violence, ‘the amount of violence at the disposal of any given country may soon not be a reliable indication of the country’s strength’.39 Again, East Asia is a case in point. Increased trade and peacefulness helped lift 1 billion people there out of poverty and has improved living standards significantly. To give but one example, at the time of independence, South Koreans were, on average, only half as well off as the average Nigerian.

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