■"Indonesia Leader To Visit U.S. As Ties Bloom: President Yudhoyono Seeks To Encourage Investment In Meetings With Officials," by Timothy Mapes and Murray Hiebert, Wall Street Journal, 23 May 2005, p. A11.

The one clearly nice upshot of the Asian Tsunamis was the improvement of bilateral relations between the U.S. and Indonesia. Ties were improving anyway, and the election of the new president in September in the country's first-ever direct election certainly helped, but the relief effort by the U.S. military did push the pile significantly. Now with two positive quarters of growth and revived mil-mil cooperation with a U.S. administration that's highly focused on waging a Global War on Terrorism, all sorts of good things become possible.

Another good example of the military-market nexus: trade and investment follow the flag more than lead it. And when trade and investment get way out ahead of the flag, like with China, therein lies the danger of growing rule set gaps whereby political connectivity doesn't keep up with economic connectivity and security connectivity doesn't keep up with technological and network connectivity. That's what gets you a Wall Street planning mergers and acquisitions while a Pentagon plans war.