On Jan. 18, 2006, Condoleezza Rice delivered a policy address
in which she argued that the fundamental threats now come from weak and failed states, not enemy powers
She called for a transformation
State Department employees would
be out in towns and villages
strengthening local governments and implementing development projects
Gates does not talk about spreading democracy
federal agencies to help locals improve the quality and responsiveness of governments in trouble spots
theoreticians may still talk about
realism and neoconservatism, but the actual foreign policy doctrine of the future will be hammered out in a bottom-up process as the U.S. and its allies
build government capacity in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, the Philippines and beyond
Grand strategists may imagine
high-level summits, but the real global architecture of the future will emerge organically from these day-to-day nation-building operations
Obama’s challenge will be to
clipped from: www.nytimes.com