The current financial crisis is obviously an issue of financial security; will our stocks/bonds/dollars retain their worth? Economic security goes hand in hand with physical security, as to maintain dominance militarily one must have awesome amounts of money at their disposal. A weak economy generally opens a nation up to enemy attack.
However, this particular situation may not be quite the same. As the American economy is so heavily tied to essentially every other major economy out there, the threat of an attack from an individual state is little to none. For example, China may not be a big fan of the States, but they own much of the US debt and attacking us now (whether it be “cashing in” on said debt or a physical attack) would be cutting off their nose despite their face. The US does not currently face a realistic physical threat from another nation.
That being said, an outside, non-state attack (terrorism), is still a possibility. If we cannot afford to mobilize in defense or counter-attack, that certainly is a security issue. Also, times of economic crisis make a nation vulnerable to the ideas of a fanatical dictator. Which could be either of the candidates this election (I kid, I kid…sorta). This sort of unrest might also force people (especially those in third world countries) to resort to extreme, sometimes violent means, to get their basic necessities.
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2 comments:
hmmm. I agree with what you said about terrorism but not about china. from what i understand, the fact that they are invested in us and the fact that we repeatedly must borrow money from them gives them a definite upper hand in bargaining.
It may give them an upper hand in bargaining, but if the US was in some way utterly devastated, who would pay them back? Our economies are tied in a way that for them to succeed we must be succeeding.
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