November 08, 2009|By Jim Rosapepe and Sheilah Kast
Iran and China are harder cases. The security architecture of Europe has worked, not primarily because NATO has protected its members from Russia but because it has protected them from each other (remember World Wars I and II?). Can we and Iran do that for the Middle East? And can we and China do that for south and east Asia?
Similarly, can Iran be integrated into a zone of free trade, free investment and free labor in its region? Can China, Japan, India - and Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and the rest - embrace peaceful, respectful and confident competition?
We think the answer is yes. What Germany and France did in the last half-century, after hundreds of years of war, is the model. In context, what post-Communist Poland, Slovakia, Croatia and their neighbors have done in the last 20 years is impressive, but just an echo of the European Union project - "perpetual peace," in Immanuel Kant's formulation.
The vision is powerful and correct. But the path is complicated. Getting there will be one of the great challenges of our time.
Maryland state Sen. Jim Rosapepe is a former U.S. ambassador to Romania. His e-mail is jcrosapepe@yahoo.com. Sheilah Kast is a former ABC News correspondent who reported on the post-communist transition from Russia, Georgia and Eastern Europe. Her e-mail is skast@wypr.org. They are co-authors of the book "Dracula Is Dead: How Romanians Survived Communism, Ended It, and Emerged Since 1989 as the New Italy."
