Re: What will a world in which the U.S. is not the sole superpower look like?

Description: The United States will still be in every measure the strongest nation in the world.

Question: What will a world in which the U.S. is not the sole superpower look like?

Transcript: I think the U.S. may not be the only superpower, but I believe we will still be in every measure the strongest nation in the world – whether it be economically, politically, militarily, including morally. I believe that we will still remain a shining city on a hill; but I think that there is no doubt that India and China are emerging powers. India, it’s pretty clear that their emergence will be economically. In the case of China, I do worry. I worry about their treatment of Taiwan. I worry about their treatment of human rights. And I’m worried about their environmental damage that they continue to inflict. I’m worried about their military buildup. If I had to bet, I would say it’s more likely that China will enter the world stage peacefully. But I think it’s important we maintain our military presence in Asia. I think we maintain pressure for human rights. And I think we have to do more to respect their violations of intellectual property rights and a number of other aspects. But . . . and make alliances with their neighbors in the region. We’re also concerned about their emergence, and one of those countries is Japan.

Question: Are Americans ready for a geopolitical shift?

Transcript: I don’t know if the world is. This is a historic shift of power from Europe to Asia. And whenever in history these kinds of enormous shifts in power go from one part of the world to the other, there are many consequences – many of them unanticipated. But it’s a reality; so our job, I think, is to prepare for it rather than assume that it’s not gonna happen or we can block it. But I wanna emphasize – America will remain the strongest nation in the world by any measure for a long, long time.

Question: What do we do to prepare for it?

Transcript: I think we have to adopt policies that encourage more peaceful participation in the world; to make sure that they abide by the international rules that they’ve agreed to according . . . including the WTO. I think we should strengthen all of our ties with Japan, Korea, Indonesia, other countries in the region. I think that we should be more forceful in our advocacy for human rights. We should be more forceful in some of the high tech corporations that are doing business in China to observe human rights as well. So there’s a lot of things that we can do as a major influence; but it is still not a certainty that China will enter the world stage peacefully. And we have to do everything we can to make sure that happens.

Question: What can America learn from the rest of the world?

Transcript: I think from a lot of the world, America – particularly Europeans – is a commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions so that we can prevent this in this incredible damage that is being inflicted on our planet due to the emission of greenhouse gases and what we know as global warming or climate change. I think we can learn something from some of the other countries in that respect.

Recorded on: 11/20/07