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I wouldn't claim to know "a lot" about geopolitics, but I think I could cook up a good argument for why The WestTM should be looking to their South (at Mexico and North Africa) rather than to the East (at Central Asia and the Near East), and to look with development glasses on rather than military glasses.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Mon Jul 13th, 2009 at 03:55:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
There are other interesting articles at TNR: Northern Exposure -Sarah Palin's toxic paradise.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Mon Jul 13th, 2009 at 04:04:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Like ... Nafta?  Oof...

Well, it's your op-ed.  Have fun!

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Mon Jul 13th, 2009 at 04:27:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
No. Like NAFTA but without the regulatory arbitrage flying the flag of convenience.

Specifically, a system that has as its first and final objective to improve the standard of living of Joe Median in the countries on our borders. Screw GDP, screw trade volumes, screw Wall Street, screw profits. Look at the literacy rates, life expectancy and incomes of the median percentile. If they are going down, you are doing something wrong.

That goes for our countries too, but it goes double for our trading partners. Partly because focusing on GDP and profits for our companies at the expense of the man on the street will create antipathy among the very people we need to convince that we are not their enemies, and partly because doing so will not solve the security issues:

Insufficiently fine-meshed health care that leads to border-crossing diseases, insufficient environmental security that leads to pollution of our common bodies of water, insufficient human well being that leads to political instability. That kind of things.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Jul 14th, 2009 at 12:35:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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