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Deleted ScenesDeleted Scene #11Chapter Four: The Core and GapSection: The Flow of Security, or How America Must Keep Globalization in BalanceCommentary: This eleventh "deleted scene" constituted the original truncated ending to the planned fifth section of the chapter, which I had originally entitled simply "Exporting Security." I ended up combining that section with the planned sixth section I was calling "Keeping Globalization in Balance," and so this ending had to go. I include it because I love the line about the U.S. saving the world and the UN saving the U.S. Deleted Scene: The Original Truncated Ending to the Section[TEXT BEGINS] Simply put, corporations are not interested in nation-building, but taking advantage of building nations. Nations build themselves up only under conditions of security and certainty, because that is what enables individuals and firms to invest resources toward long-term goals. Since Gap regions -- almost by definition -- lack a regional Leviathan willing to ensure the security of all, if the U.S. is unwilling to play that role, we basically condemn those regions to perpetual war and thus chronic poverty. So, unless that flow of security exports from the U.S. to the Gap is pursued in a systematic fashion, this collective war zone will remain outside the Core. Are U.S. security exports sufficient to shrink the Gap? Absolutely not. But are they a necessary component of this transition? Without a doubt. I say that America's job is to save the world from itself, but the UN's job is to save the world from America. Left to its own meager devices, the UN will never shrink the Gap's chronic violence, but merely keep the patient on life support. The UN is a hospice at best, while U.S. security exports are the real antidote. Not a cure-all, mind you, but sometimes -- like in the Kashmir -- a real life-saver. [TEXT ENDS] |
Putnam, 2004 |
