"If it takes being protectionist to stop the PRC's military machine from growing then so be it."
You have to face that the paradigm in this world is shifting as information sharing becomes faster and faster and the world comes closer together...we are all becoming one...national soverignity will give way to individual soverignity as the most important thing to preserve. You seem very fixated on the macro outlook when the world is evolving to the micro outlook. National interests don't mean anything anymore.
"we are all becoming one...national soverignity will give way to individual soverignity as the most important thing to preserve."
The idea that "we all are becoming one" is taking national sovereignty and individual sovereignty away and instilling elitists who are responsible to no one.
There is not more individual sovereignty, there is less, and that is the plan of the elitists. We have been getting less free will, not more.
Nonsense - the same fundamentals as always are in play - the frequency of "paradigm shifts" that people claim is about as overstated as the "New Economy." The more things change, the more they stay the same...
The exponential increase in the speed of information transfer does not and (for now) can not substantially change the reaction time of an individual, group, industry, government, etc. Information may be power - but the ability to act on it is significantly more powerful.
national soverignity will give way to individual soverignity as the most important thing to preserve.
For most, individual sovereignty has always been the most important thing to preserve. Historically, here in the U.S., preservation of that on a national scale has ensured a like preservation on the personal scale.
You seem very fixated on the macro outlook when the world is evolving to the micro outlook.
So be it. Fixation of some on the "micro outlook" creates opportunities for those who focus on the fundamentals of the "macro outlook." It is really a seeing the forest for the trees scenario. The smaller the scale, the higher the noise. Those who focus on the "micro outlook" are doomed to being swamped with a tidal wave of information, 90% of which is useless. Even worse, the time necessary to analyze the worthless information is pure institutional waste.
National interests don't mean anything anymore
Sure they do - possibly even more so than before. If national interests align with individual interests, as they do in the U.S., they are a significant motivating factor. In areas, or regions where they fail to align the governments may be able to secure short term nationalism, but the rhetoric is, in the end, unsustainable.
The increase in the speed of information transfer has resulted in this difference being more in play than ever. By in large, governments can no longer control information transfer, so while it may seem that that limits national interests, the truth is it only limits those interests in those places where those interests conflict with individual interests, such as freedom...