C10 - Trade and security: a vital link to sustainable development in a troubled world

Summary

The link between trade and security remains, for many, a controversial or at least an ambiguous issue. One school of thought argues that trade promotes security through increased welfare; the other views free trade as a potential trigger of insecurity and conflict. Neither school has a monopoly over truth.

What have trade and security got in common? Not much, at first glance. Trade is for business and security is the concern of the state which is responsible for protecting its citizens. So much for the conventional, narrow-minded view. It does not require a Nobel laureate or a rocket scientist to unveil the inherent two-way relationship between trade and security. Let's examine this relationship using sheer common sense, and staying away from fancy theories and frameworks.

The essence of security lies not so much in how many police forces, guns and hi-tech intelligence gadgets are around to sniff out potential terrorists and mete out harsh punishments to deter them from carrying out their evil acts. This militaristic approach might provide a sense of security for some but – for many, including myself – it bestows a frightening image of a fragile peace, a tense environment and an artificial truce between the state and its presumed adversaries.

Sure enough, these measures have so far provided a robust deterrent and foiled many potentially deadly schemes (but not without notable exceptions, as demonstrated by recent bombings in India and Indonesia, military conflict in the oil-producing Nigeria Delta, piracy off the Somali coast, not to mention Iraq, among many others).