The United States and the Asia-Pacific Region
November 26, 2011 by Patrick Hall
President Barack Obama attends the APEC working lunch at the InterContinental Yokohama Grand Hotel in Yokohama, Japan, Nov. 13, 2010. Pete Souza/White House
China’s centralized policymaking continues to be at odds with a world system that strives to observe the principles promoted by the international community. At the Reuters Washington Summit, Undersecretary of State Robert Hormats stated that “There’s competition between the American economic model and the more state-centered economic model of China” and “We have a challenge in dealing with China. On one hand, the global system won’t work well if we and China can’t cooperate and productively resolve our differences”.
With the developed world reinforcing the notions of democracy and open markets, China continues to combat Western influence as a means to preserve its national sovereignty and diminish foreign interference in domestic affairs. Undersecretary Hormats’ resolution to this issue is for the West to promote its “principles and practices” as a means to “signal to China that other countries are playing by a higher set of international rules”.
On the Reelection of Barack Obama
November 26, 2011 by Taylor Dibbert
President Barack Obama talks with former President Bill Clinton backstage at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York, N.Y., June 4, 2012. Pete Souza/White House
If Barack Obama is reelected he should consider himself quite lucky. Barack Obama was heralded into office as a true visionary, someone who would be able to look beyond partisan politics and really change Washington. After all, Obama’s rise captures the very essence of the American dream.
Then reality set in. It was naïve of the Obama administration to think that its healthcare policy could be retroactively sold to the American public. It cannot. And US voters are generally unreceptive to that style of leadership. It might have been George W. Bush’s economy a few years ago, but it is President Obama’s economy now. Unemployment is still at 9 percent. The line between deliberation and reluctance to lead is a fine one.
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