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The next U.S. administration should commit greater leadership time to developing a more considered and engaged Asian policy that begins with a call for a new multilateral organization in East Asia.
Young democracy, with weak institutions, often brings to power, at first, elected leaders who actually don't care that much about upholding democracy. As these demagogues tear down the very reforms the middle classes built, those same middle classes turn against the leaders, and then against the system itself, bringing democracy to collapse.
The next president of the United States will inherit the challenge of persuading the Pakistani leadership that it needs to continue prosecuting an unpopular, but necessary, war. Two fundamental changes need to be made by the next administration - it will have to strengthen the civilian government in Islamabad, while still maintaining a cooperative relationship with the Pakistani military.
The countries of the East won't be banding together to replace the West as the seat of global power anytime soon. Many trends do suggest that Asian nations are becoming more integrated than ever before. At the same time, however, a virulent nationalism is spreading in the region, one that feeds on history to gin up hatred and push small-minded agendas.
Just three years ago, at the G-8 summit of industrialized nations, it looked like the world of foreign aid was about to change. Today, that hope has all but evaporated. A collision of factors, from politics to shifting global wealth, has unraveled the consensus once held among rich countries and allowed poorer nations to ignore calls for reform.
The Bush administration, in its eagerness to expand trade with China, has relegated consumer safety to the backseat. As the world's top consumer of Chinese goods, the U.S. has the clout to sway China's behavior, but the administration has alternately ignored safety concerns and accepted assurances from the world's fastest-growing exporter that it will clean up its act.
The prominent role of the internet in propagating and perpetuating violent Islamist ideology is well known. As such, identifying methods to short-circuit internet radicalization has become an urgent goal for numerous governments. Saudi Arabia has quietly supported initiatives to combat internet radicalization. One of the most developed programs is the Sakinah Campaign.
Russia's invasion of Georgia raises doubts about the common assumption that, in the post-Cold War world, geopolitical conflict will eventually be replaced by economic interdependence and cooperation. As countries like Russia and China begin to strengthen, however, this trend does not necessarily mean that America must relinquish its superpower status.
Although the Western press reports that average Chinese citizens are immensely proud of the Olympics, these Games are not very important to China's "forgotten" rural citizens, who comprise over half of its population -- 200 million of them earn less than $1.25 per day, a near-African wage. The Olympics have only made their lives tougher.
The massive overhaul of Beijing in preparation for the Olympic summer games was orchestrated by the state's top-down power structure without the participation of civil society. Minxin Pei explains in the Financial Times that political evolution historically associated with economic development is not taking place in China.
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