The goal is to advance peaceful development of their region over time, without conflict. Security communities are appropriate for the Asia-Pacific region since the members of a security community need not be signatories to a security treaty. They can simply be groupings of nations who share a common geographic concern or functional concerns as they work together. Security communities share several attributes that are the same as investment and commercial interactions. They require a shared interest and a basic level of trust.
Successful transactions benefit both parties.
They are not zero sum, and Success builds confidence and encourages more cooperation. In summary, let me say again that in the area of security and peaceful development, those of us in the armed forces and those of you in the commercial sector have parallel and often overlapping interests. We should emphasize them. The end of ideological confrontations across armed camps More sophisticated use of economic levers by governments for security objectives Potential commercial and other sanctuaries within military operations Most important, I believe, is the development of security communities, which emphasize cooperation, solving problems peacefully, and cooperating to achieve them. I enlist your support both as business executives, policy makers and government officials, and, as citizens who have a stake in this Asia-Pacific region and have a responsibility to pass it on to succeeding generations in better shape than we received it.