Is a More Prosperous World More Secure? Not as Trump Sees It
Since the end of World War II, American foreign policy has understood the role of economic development in the prevention
of conflict around the world — providing a subtle yet powerful contribution to the United States’ own national security.
And Mr. Trump’s stand on trade — threatening to encircle the United States with a wall of punitive tariffs
and other protections (ironically justifying protectionism on grounds of national security) — is likely to be more damaging to global development than his stand on aid, further weakening an already wobbly commitment by the world’s largest nations to refrain from protectionist measures that would stymie global growth.
As my colleague Helene Cooper reported, African generals and American military experts are worried
that the United States has lost interest in promoting development in Africa and is focusing nearly exclusively on military cooperation.
An analysis of conflict around the world by James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, political scientists at Stanford University, concluded
that $1,000 less in per capita income is associated with 41 percent greater odds that civil war will break out in a given year.
