Pacific Powerhouse

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By STEVEN SAMPLE

With the 21st century widely predicted to be dominated by Asia, there is a tendency for Americans to lament the diminished focus on the United States. But an important point is being overlooked: Los Angeles is the de facto capital of the Pacific Rim. And that fact holds great promise for the United States.

I’ve spent the last 18 years traveling regularly in Asia on behalf of USC and as a co-founder of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, and one reality is indisputable: No Asian city has the diversity of cultures that Los Angeles possesses. As a result, no other city is the gathering place for Asians and people of Asian descent that Los Angeles represents. And that is the key to L.A.’s standing as the capital of the Pacific Rim.

Other cities along the Rim (in Asia, and North and South America) have great ports; some are even “gateway” cities, but only Los Angeles has a unique and powerful convergence of three remarkable attributes:

– A strength and breadth in business and commerce, especially in pioneering businesses, and in one premiere business the global communications revolution;

– Extraordinary creativity, including exceptional levels of intellectual capital;

– And unprecedented ethnic diversity and the interpenetration of cultures.

The first two attributes put Los Angeles in a very small, select group of Pacific Rim cities, but it’s the wealth of international diversity from across the Pacific Rim that puts Los Angeles on top.

Los Angeles County today comprises 10.4 million people more than the population of most nations. Thirty-six percent of that population is foreign born. Added to that are those who were born here but whose parents or grandparents were foreign born. With that definition in mind, Los Angeles has more people of Mexican descent than anywhere outside Mexico; the largest Korean population outside Seoul, South Korea; the largest Filipino population outside Manila, capital of the Philippines; the largest Japanese population outside Japan; and by far the largest Asian-American population in the United States.

What that means is that people along the Pacific Rim gravitate to Los Angeles, more than any other city, because there is a home community for everyone. It’s a place where people from virtually any culture can find others with similar backgrounds and where people of different backgrounds can meet.

USC now attracts more international students than any other American university, and far more from around the Pacific Rim. I was startled to learn that one of USC’s appeals to Asian students is that it provides an environment where Asian students from one country can meet Asian students from others. That opportunity simply doesn’t exist to the same extent at universities in Asia.

In other words, Asians are coming to the United States to meet other Asians. And that fact holds the key to American prominence, even if this becomes an Asian century. It’s also one of the reasons that we should be careful that, out of concerns for security, we don’t undercut the vital role that American universities are playing in international education.


Positive impact

All of this is good news for the United States. L.A.’s central role in the Pacific Rim means that many opportunities will be coming our way. Students from all across Asia will be arriving to study at our leading universities, and many of them will stay, adding to the immigrant “brain gain” that has fueled so much of American economic growth. American students will benefit as well, as they make new friends and develop their own contacts for a global economy.

Los Angeles will provide a unique meeting place, where people of different cultures come together, international business deals are made, foreign companies locate and serendipitous multinational encounters take place.

A short time ago, after having lived in Los Angeles for five years, the consul general of Israel reflected on what he had discovered:

“Coming from the Middle East, where ethnic divisions have paralyzed us, I am in awe of the positive cross-cultural interaction between the people of Los Angeles. At the end of the day, you see millions of people from every background imaginable living side by side, working together and forging a future under the bright California sun.”

That positive cross-cultural interaction has to be tended constantly and is often imperfect, but it is a decisive strength an attribute that literally puts Los Angeles in a league of its own in the Pacific Rim. And L.A.’s strength as a magnet for people from around the Pacific Rim benefits the entire West Coast, and the nation, enhancing the economies of other cities along the way.

The 21st century may well involve an increased focus on Asia, but the United States with L.A.’s prominent positioning will be playing a leading role.


Steven B. Sample is president of USC.

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