1992 marks time to break old habits

With the collapse of communism, the disintegration of the Soviet bloc and the disappearance of the Soviet state, we face a new world that requires new priorities and strategies. As we look to 1992 and beyond, we have to ask ourselves: What is really important and where should our attention be focused?

At the end of WW II, the U.S. was blessed with visionary leaders. George Marshall, Arthur Vandenberg, Dan Acheson and others focused on building strong economic foundations for a new world order. They established the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), the World Bank and other institutions that gave the world unprecedented prosperity.

"Atlanticists" to the core, they also supported economic and political integration in Europe. For example, the Marshall Plan to rebuild war-torn Europe was administered through the U.S.-inspired Organization for European Economic Cooperation, which required joint planning among the European nations receiving Marshall aid. Their vision of peace and prosperity was Eurocentered; their strategy was economic.

Then came the Cold War, a period when economics took a back seat to politico-military strategy: how to contain the expansion of the Soviet Union, keep the lid on the nuclear "balance of terror," woo non-aligned nations and fight proxy wars in Asia, Central America and elsewhere.

The disintegration of the Soviet state leaves formidable humanitarian and security problems in its wake. Not the least is the continuing possibility of the world's first civil war where one or more sides has nuclear weapons.

But as Americans, we must move beyond our preoccupation with the former Soviet Union. First, it's time again to give at least as much attention to economics - for example, to economic competitiveness and overseas business development - as to politics and military strategy.

Second, a new vision must transcend our Eurocentered approach to a world that won't wait for us. Certainly, developments in North America and Asia are at least as important as developments in Europe. And Third World markets in the Southern Hemisphere are at least as important as the Third World markets of the former Soviet Union.

As television news and newspaper front pages hail progress toward EC'92, let's not forget that after the conclusion of a North American Free Trade Agreement next year, North America, not Europe, will be the world's largest, richest, youngest and most multi-cultural trade bloc - and the best-endowed with natural resources.

As politicians and opinion leaders stuck in the old world continue to draw our attention to the former Soviet Union, let's not forget that this decade will see more than 200 million additional Asians join the middle class; that India has a larger middle class than China and the former Soviet Union combined and that the emergence of Vietnam's 70 million people into the global economy in the next year or so is at least as important to our future as any of the former East Bloc countries.

When a U.S. president succumbs to pressure to cancel a trip to Asia to show concern for America's "domestic" economy, let's not forget that ever $1 billion of exports creates about 25,000 jobs in the U.S.

As we enter 1992 and begin to consider the shape of things to come, let's remember: The world is bigger than Europe and the Atlantic basin, and economic strategy is at least as important as politico-military strategy. This is clearly a time for new world visions, not old world habits.