PERSPECTIVE ON SECURITY : Foreign Policy Comes Out of Its Box : Military power is just part of today’s equation. Economic clout and global integration are foremost.

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton isn’t making foreign policy the centerpiece of his campaign. But Republican strategists would be foolish to think that the Democrats have ceded that territory, traditionally a Republican stronghold. Clinton’s focus on economic investment could prove to be the foundation for a new type of foreign policy, one better suited to the challenges that the next American President will face.

Foreign policy cannot be kept in a box labeled “national security,” to be opened in the event of military conflicts, terrorist threats or declarations of independence from still another ethnic group. Post-Cold War national security is centered on economic security.

Indeed, in the minds of diverse government officials at the recent World Economic Forum meetings in Switzerland, “foreign policy” now means “attracting foreign investment.”

But will the next President persist in equating foreign policy with foreign aid and national security with military security? If he does, we will be reduced to supplying corn to drought victims and mercenaries to fight dictators, while our own people lack jobs, homes or meals.

The troubling domestic social and economic problems preoccupying America today cannot be solved without a foreign policy reformulated to pay attention to the world economy. The allies we must nurture and value are the ones with whom we do business, not simply the ones that will line up behind us in case of war. Our trading partners are also our business partners, linked through joint ventures, alliances and supplier relationships that occur on our soil and theirs, spanning countries and crossing borders.

Just as American corporations are eliminating their separate international divisions in favor of integrated worldwide operations, government must be restructured to reflect the blurring of the boundary between matters affecting us at home and our interests abroad.

Foreign and domestic questions are increasingly intertwined:

-- The prosperity of our economy is supported by open-market economies outside the United States that can buy American products and services and help American companies as suppliers. Will the next President’s foreign policy take economic interests into account, encouraging open domestic competition everywhere?

-- Developing countries, once in need of our aid or our protection, now represent huge markets as well as sources of supply for their venture allies.

Our own neighbors to the south constitute the next world region with high development potential. Instead of deciding which guerrilla group to fight or arm, shouldn’t we be deciding which business plan to fund?

-- The state of the environment is a hot domestic issue. But pollution does not respect borders. Exporting waste or dirty jobs is shortsighted. Equally shortsighted is reducing regulation on U.S. businesses so that they do not have to pay the costs associated with higher standards. Solutions lie in world cooperation.

-- Success in the global economy is aided by knowledge of language and culture. Will the next President work to prepare U.S. citizens for this? In the Harvard Business Review World Leadership Survey of managers in 24 countries, Americans scored low in foreign-language skills and experience working abroad. -- Ultimately, national security rests on the competitiveness of U.S. companies. Will the next President have the courage to stimulate major change? We need more research and development and fewer executive perks; we need more cooperation--between labor and management, between customers and suppliers--and less litigation. Core technologies are national assets to be nurtured and then commercialized faster, through better cooperation between entrepreneurs and centers of basic science. Otherwise, we risk spreading national investment too thin, failing to focus it strategically.

Do we want America to be known in the world as a cheap vacation destination and a source of peace-keeping mercenaries? Do we want the 50 states to become the 50 colonies--sources of raw materials and low-cost labor for other nations?

If not, then ask the candidates to develop a foreign policy that deals with the realities of the global economy.