The financial world is obsessed with stock market gyrations and bond yields. But the numbers that matter in the long run are those of US warships. Asia has been at the centre of the world economy for decades because security there can be taken for granted, and that is only because of the dominance of the US navy and air force in the western Pacific. Because 90 per cent of all commercial goods traded between continents travel by sea, the US navy, which does more than any other entity to protect these lines of communication, is responsible for globalisation as we know it.
金融世界正受到股市震盪和債券收益率問題的困擾。但從長遠來看，真正舉足輕重的卻是美國軍艦的數量。幾十年來，亞洲一直處於全球經濟的中心，是因爲該地區的安全被視爲理所當然——而這全賴美國海軍和空軍在西太平洋地區佔據著支配地位。因爲90%的洲際商品貿易是走海路的，所以，在保護這些商品流通線路上做得比其他任何一個實體都多的美國海軍，實際上肩負著保護我們所知的全球化的責任。