We are the World

Globalization is here to stay.

Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek:

Those who want to stop it—and it's not clear how you could do that—should remember that the United States' prosperity has come from its very willingness to open itself up to the world. Over the last 60 years, manufacturing employment in the United States has plummeted as those industries went abroad—and yet average American incomes have risen to be the highest in the world. Over the last 20 years, as globalization has quickened, American companies have outsourced first goods, then services—and American incomes have risen faster than those of any other major industrial country.

Amost as many Americans work for foreign companies here as foreigners work for US companies overseas, according to LaSalle Bank's chief economist, in today's Tribune.

And the US has been universally regarded as a safe haven for investors all over the world, which helps keep our interests rates down and provides capital to grow US business and create jobs.

Dubai is unusual for the middle east, hosting a vibrant free trade zone and is known for its religious tolerance, allowing non-Muslims to practice their religions.

We need to cultivate allies such as Dubai overseas for the future of our economy and for our national security.

Otherwise we may fall behind, as Europe has, and overseas investors and ingenuity may look elsewhere, to countries like Dubai and India:

No matter the outcome, the flap is likely to tarnish this country's reputation in the Muslim world as a safe place to invest, one international expert says.

"Muslim investment is bigger than Arab investment. If you're Muslim, you start getting the message that this is not a place that welcomes my investment," said Adil Najam, an associate professor of international negotiation and diplomacy at the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

"If you're an Arab with $10million of disposable income, maybe you think, `Let me go to India, a place where I'm welcome, where I don't feel this bigoted sense of hostility.'"

With a large, growing middle class and strong democratic traditions, legally and culturally, India is a valued trading partner for us as well.

Free trade and free societies go hand in hand. We need to recognize our friends around the world and stand by them.

As Jim Hoagland put it in the Washington Post, highlighting the significance of President Bush's upcoming trip to Pakistan and India,

I think of it as the Rice Doctrine, since the secretary of state has stated it most clearly: "The fundamental character of regimes matters more today than the international distribution of power." Only democracy ensures "lasting peace and security between states, because it is the only guarantee of freedom and justice within states," she wrote in a Post op-ed on Dec. 11.

Like it or not, we are connected to the rest of the world as never before, and we can't go back, nor should we. Countries are making the choice, whether they are with us or against us in the war on terror, because it is a battle for the future.