When the new administration maps our military’s future during the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review I hope they remember U.S. economic and military power are two sides of the same coin, each intertwined and dependent on one another. Our enemies clearly understood this fact when they attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In 1993, when the World Trade Center was attacked the first time, global trade was an important part of U.S. economic power. Now it is the very cornerstone of our economy. As free trade has flourished, the economic side of that coin has acquired a decidedly international flavor. Unfortunately, U.S. defense policy hasn’t caught up with this reality, jeopardizing both pillars of American power.
Since 1990, the U.S. has forged over twenty free trade agreements with dozens of international trading partners, pumping almost 3 trillion dollars in goods into our economy last year alone. At the heart each agreement is the belief reducing trade barriers benefits all participants by empowering consumers to obtain products at the lowest possible price. Generally speaking, in a free trade zone whichever country delivers a product with the highest quality for the lowest price becomes the preferred supplier. Eventually, other participating countries lose their ability to create certain products and become consumer nations. These nations, like America, theoretically win because their buying power, and overall economy, grows. What does all this have to do with defense policy?
As these trade arteries form and grow, once self-sustaining nations become more dependent on one another. Sometimes these trade relationships extend beyond mere consumer items. Strategic interdependencies of supreme national interest can emerge, vital links which must be defended.
America’s most important strategic dependency pre-dates the free trade era – oil. Defending this vital commodity has cost us dearly in blood and treasure. Free trade is quietly creating many more such strategic dependencies. These are in critical sectors where America was once completely self-sufficient, such as food and defense. For example, 16% of America’s food, including 60% of our fresh fruit and vegetables, now must be imported. In 2008, Congress rewrote the Berry Amendment, a fifty year old military “buy American” law. In doing so they acknowledged we can no longer economically produce the specialty metals needed for defense. Free trade is now essential not to only our national survival, but for our military power as well.
These trade routes, both in real- and cyberspace, provide adversaries disproportionate leverage to wreak havoc, making terrorists and rogue nations even more dangerous. One merely needs to looks at the damage a few rag-tag Somalia pirates inflicted as an example. Therefore, free trade agreements are implicit defense treaties, obligations to protect a vital artery upon which our economy and defense, to some degree, rests upon. While our free trade obligations have grown since 1990 our military force structure has diminished. Why hasn’t defense policy kept up with trade policy?
Free trade agreements are negotiated by the Office of the US Trade Representative, advised by a host of other governmental agencies. The Defense Department is not listed on any of its intergovernmental advisory committees. Free trade policy and defense policy are essentially isolated from one another.
When the last troops come home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the need to protect America’s economic well-being will remain. Our military and economic strength is nourished by a network of global trade arteries, many virtually unprotected. Cutting any one can damage us and our partners in ways not yet fully understood. Therefore, to some extent the U.S. military must defend them. Free trade comes with a hefty price; an unspoken, unfunded military mandate far exceeding what we are currently allocating. During the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review we must take stock of the world we’ve created and how we plan to defend it.