Re: How should the U.S. deal with

Description: Recognize that the second world extends beyond the Middle East.

Transcript: Well, the #1 reason for a lot of influence in those countries is not the fact that we have had a military driven strategy in the Middle East. Second world countries are everywhere from Malaysia to Colombia. Its not just about the perception that we are acting imperially in a distant part of the world. There is a lot more to do, it’s not seeing the benefits of the American engagement and investment in those countries, while actually seeing larger pay offs and more efficient payoffs from dealing with China or Europe, and the fact is that even if we get our act back together, it doesn’t mean that Europe and China disappear. They will continue to do what they do, so the most we can hope to achieve is to stabilize our position, but we have to recognize what others are doing and construct more attractive packages for each 2nd world country. Reason I wrote this book is because I wanted to show what countries think and what they want, in the case by case basis and say before we craft a policy towards country X, let’s first look at what it wants rather than just what it has and what we wanted to do and if we have a better understanding of what they want to be able to craft more attractive kind of packages and incentives and offerings to them. I think that’s the process is only just begun, they answered you hearts and minds questions is really a derivative of that.

Recorded on: 3/3/08