Economics of competitive coexistence

Ever since the Soviet bloc began its trade-and-aid drive in the un committed countries of Asia and the Middle East under the slogan of "competitive coexistence", Western statesmen and economists have been pondering its implications. What is the impact in the less developed areas and the effect on world trade and production? How great is the capability of the Soviet bloc for a further expansion of these activities that cause so much concern in the West?

The study of the Economics of Competitive Coexistence was proposed by the NPA International Committee and set up in 1956 as a separate project to investigate these questions and a host of related problems. As an aid to its forthcoming general volume of analysis, the Project commissioned a number of country and area studies of which present one on Japan is the second to be published. The Project's interest in that country arises from Japan's special position between the West and the Sino-Soviet bloc. A defeated foe turned into an ally of the West, a prostrate economy restored and revitalized beyond expectation, Japan has regained its position as the most important industrial and trading nation in the Far East. The Sino-Soviet bloc therefore has recognized Japan as a political and economic prize of unmatched importance and made it the object of an undisguised "stick-and-carrot" policy that deserves close scrutiny from the angle of Western economic policy in Asia.

The Rockefeller Foundation in 1956 and 1957 made two grants to finance the NPA Project on the Economics of Competitive Coexistence. The Foundation is not, however, to be understood as approving by virtue of its grants any of the views expressed in research studies growing out of the Project.

NPA is grateful for the Rockefeller Foundation's financial support and is deeply indebted to all who are contributing to this Project: to the members of the Special Project Committee on the Economics of Competitive Coexistence; to the Project's research staff; and especially to H. Michael Sapir, the author of the present study on Japan, China, and the West.