Patriot games.

• Author: Howell, Llewellyn D.
• Position: WORLD WATCHER - Dubai Ports World takeover deal

MOHAMMED SHARAF, chief executive of Dubai Ports World, says that the virulent reaction to DP World's takeover of a previously British-owned service contract came as "a real shock." It shouldn't have. Like the Bush Administration that had approved the deal, Sharaf was completely out of touch with American reality.

There was a clear sign of trouble in reports from the respected and nonpartisan Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI) Operations Risk Index. On a six-point scale, for its rating on "Attitudes Toward Foreign Investors and Profits," the U.S. has declined from a reasonably high 5.0 (Belgium was the highest at 5.25) during the last year of the Clinton Administration to 4.5 at the end of 2005, just before the Dubai Ports World deal was proposed.

Over that same time period, overall Operations Risk with 14 other factors declined for the U.S. from 76 (scale of 100) to 70--now behind Taiwan, Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The picture given to potential foreign investors of the U.S. environment remains relatively solid, but it has slid precipitously since 9/11. The collapse of the Dubai Ports deal, based on a popular response in the U.S. rather than on the merits of the contract or any real issues of national security, is an indication that an American domestic threat to international business is real.

The public's reaction was a sociological phenomenon. Some have argued that it is patriotism. The public saw a threat to national security and the flag and passed their fears directly on to their political leaders, who turned it into legislation. On a more academic level, the response could be the more widely understood sense of nationalism. Less politically directed than patriotism, nationalism is a drawing together of people with a common background and ethnicity. Nationalism is a closing in of the circle: we vs. them.

New York Times columnist David Brooks estimated on National Public Radio that the response to the deal was "80% xenophobic." He is close to the mark. The facts were little considered here. Xenophobia is a fear or hatred of foreigners, which is directed primarily at Arabs in this instance. Xenophobia is irrational, part of a belief system that thrives on lack of knowledge and reactions to limited information about dramatic events.

The concept of homeland security arose in the patriotic wake of 9/11. Another example of Republican framing, the notion of a nationalistic land and territory that had...