Asia, like any other region, has more to worry about than currency controls and trade issues. It has to worry about insurrections, collapsing strategic nations, and great power conflicts. It has to worry about building navies and air forces, recruiting armies and forming military alliances. In other words, Apec has to define the term Asia-Pacific geographically, remove the limiting term ''Economic'' and explain what it means by ''forum''. It has become normal again.
Normality is painful in a world of economic difficulty.
During the 1980s and much of the 1990s, the news of Asia was delivered on the business pages of the newspaper. In the next decade, Asia's news, like that of other continents, will be told on the front pages. It will include not only profits and losses, but also reports of dead and wounded. Australia played that role in East Timor, but the lack of an Asian solution to Indonesia will certainly create a vacuum that the United States will fill. Now, if the United States fills the vacuum, it is inevitable that Asia will be caught between two poles.