Issues in International Political Economy: Dealing with Neighbors

Quite apart from the fact that the United States profits overall from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an important consideration lost in the bad-mouthing of the agreement by Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is that we are fortunate in our two land neighbors. Canada and Mexico are peaceful countries and troops are not needed on either side of the two U.S. borders for purposes of keeping the peace. Neither of the two countries is politically extreme. Both are democracies, and NAFTA gave a push toward reaching this outcome peacefully in Mexico. Comparing North America with other regions of the world brings out this fortuitous situation; it is the antithesis of the enmity, and often bloodshed, that prevailed between Germany and France for centuries, between India and Pakistan, Russia and China, and Venezuela and Colombia today.