The link between trade and economic development is well established. International trade and investment hold the promise of creating new jobs, improving living standards worldwide and even helping to create a more peaceful world. Providing substantial boost to this argument, a recent article in The Economist demonstrated that if we consider people, not countries, global inequality is falling rapidly. Less clear is the link between trade and terrorism.

The lesson of history shows that counter terrorism requires more than military action and intelligence gathering. It's incorrect to say that Islamic fundamentalism is the root of the global terrorism threat. The fact is that the forces and causes of terrorism are far more diverse. The reality is that there are hundreds of small to large groups today who use random attacks on civilian and commercial targets as a means of getting attention and winning support (so they hope).

Take the patterns of terrorism in the Middle East, Indonesia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Bosnia, India, Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland. Some terrorist acts also arise from the particular obsessions of individuals who do not find support and might even be described as outsiders in their own communities; examples include the destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, and the sarin gas attacks in Tokyo. In almost all cases a sense of injustice is what feeds terrorism. Poverty and a sense of injustice (perceived or real) can provide fertile ground for conflict to grow and for those with evil intent to distort the desire for social and economic justice into violence and terrorism.

Robert B. Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative, argues that there is an "inextricable link" between economic prosperity and global security. Free trade helps bring prosperity to people across regional and national boundaries, and provides benefits to the less fortunate while acting as a powerful weapon against terrorism. While governments all over the world continue their existing efforts to fight terrorism with all the available means, trade liberalization and economic integration must take top priority. According to John McGinns, professor at Benjamin N. Cardazo Law School, in addition to economic growth, trade brings two other critically important values to the developing nations, values that ultimately benefit the United States as well. Trade brings new products, services and new ideas to the developing world and opens them to ideas of freedom and democracy-powerful weapons against tyranny and terrorism. Second, trade is a potent weapon against corruption in government, and clean government will facilitate economic development and simultaneously remove a weapon from terrorist's armory.

A recent study by Rand Corporation reviewed several countries and how they have enacted social and economic development policies to inhibit a resurgence of terrorism within their jurisdictions. The efforts of these countries demonstrated the potential benefits and shortcomings of using social and economic development as a counter terrorism tool. Each case offers its own unique lessons that led to the following six overall conclusions about the role of social and economic development in countering a resurgence of terrorism. They are:

• Social and economic development policies can weaken local support for terrorist activities.

• Social and economic development can discourage terrorist recruits.

• Inadequately funded social and economic policies are likely to inflate expectations and renew support for terrorism.

• The ability of development policies to inhibit terrorism depends on their implementation.

• Social and economic development policies can be used as a "stick" to discourage terrorism.

• Social and economic policies do not eliminate terrorism.

Authors of this study argue that these conclusions have particular relevance to the United States as it embarks on its continuing war on global terrorism and that judicious use of foreign assistance could reduce local support for terrorist groups.

With globalization, both our economic well-being and our security are now more closely intertwined than ever before. No single nation can deal in isolation with the threat of international terrorism. Institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO are expressions of the international community's commitment to work together and we must work with them to fight terrorism and promote trade. Here a comment by Undersecretary of State Alan P. Larson is worth mentioning, "The National Security Strategy recognizes the importance of strengthening our economic security, expanding trade and investment, and promoting economic development."

Obviously, trade is no substitute for military and diplomatic actions against current and future terrorist threats, but in the long run it can transform social and economic conditions in a way that is very unfavorable to terrorism.