… is from Samuel Gregg’s excellent July 2024 paper, “A Free, Prosperous and Secure America”:
Certainly, trade liberalization should not be regarded as ushering in the type of perpetual peace envisaged by Kant. Nonetheless, we ought to resist the temptation to imagine that, in a world in which states remain the essential building-block of international relations, economic nationalist policies are more likely to help realize national security objectives.
Through trade liberalization, America accentuates its economic growth and helps to create relationships with other states that gives them some interest in America’s ongoing economic prosperity and overall well-being. These benefits contribute significantly to America’s national security in a world of growing geopolitical rivalries. The prospect of liberal international order may be fading. But continuing efforts to liberalize America’s trade relations with other states and steadily diminish barriers to cross-border exchanges of goods and services will serve US national security interests in ways that neo-mercantilist and economic nationalist policies cannot.
