Its about 50 minutes. Welcome to rnegie connects, a virtual series of conversations and on issues of critical iortance. Tays conversation on how the world sees america is especially timely. We are on the cusp of one of the most consequenti elections in American History and even though the nation is preoccupied with covid and economic recovery and Foreign Policy tends to be an inside the beltway issue, its likely not to figure prominently in Voter Preferences and choices in this electction the resultof , that election will have a decisive impact on how america acts in the world and how the world evaluates the consequences of those actions. I ththink its clear that we are at a crossroads. Donald trump has played the role of disruptor, fundamentally altering the policies ofis for postwar, postcold war predecsors, embracing auoritarians, rejecting alliances and multilateral diplplomacy and embarking on wht caonly be described as a wholesale withdrawal or to or a threat to withdraw from so many enterprises. Tdp, paris clements, inf treaty, the random clear agreements, unesco and who and not the Iran Nuclear Agreement unesco and who and not the , disruption is by definition always bad. Its bad if theres nothing to replace it. Its bad if its followed by policies that dont serve the national interest. And its bad if its done for tethered toke political interest biden on the other hand offers a much different approach we u. S. Back atld, a return tohe e the head of the table. The problem and we will talk to our distinguished panel about this is that the table has changed. Covid is probably without exaggerating the most consequential event in the world since the Second World War and theres no going back to the way things were. China is probably emerging stronger economically, is is unchecked, north korea has more nukes got the us embassy in jerusalem, israelis in the arab states are making peace through normalization. Assad is in power in syria and globalization has taken a huge hit. One additional point, biden is going to confront should he be elected the most serious challenge in National Recovery since Franklin Roosevelt without the benefit of what roosevelt had a world war left america , stronger at home and with more influence in the world abroad. And i only raise the final issue, is it possible for the United States given how badly ized andysed tribal polarized we are to create once again a measure of consensus on american Foreign Policy that is wise so many questions with , prudent, and durable. So many questions with apologies to clint eastwood, we have used the good bad and ugly trope, we can agree on the bad and the ugly part but what about the last four years in terms of the good . What are trumps accomplishments . What about the last four years as most alienated and delighted allies and adversaries . How bad as the reputational hit then for the us and who would our allies and adversaries really prefer as the next president and finally, what are the expectations of those allies and adversaries for a Biden Administration should there be one. Fortunately i dont have to , we have three extraordinary answer these questions. Presenters there, all extremely well known to you. Christian amanpour is the anchor of the networks flagship Global Affairs program amanpour and amanpour and company on cbs. Stephen erlanger is he the chief Diplomatic Correspondent in europe for the new york times. Hes spent a long career in overseas postings including bangkok, belgrade, berlin, london, moscow, paris, prague and yes, even in washington d. C. Christian and stephen ive known for a long time, and finally the ineffable david rennie who is beijing bureau chief for the economist and author of the publications wonderful column. So five minutes each, we have a at 9 50. And there will be a time for q and a at the end. Without further ado, christian, im going to turn the virtual floor over to you. Maybe youll recognize it but people will recognize how this disruption is working out for you . It doesnt look really good from this side and both adversaries and allies are clearly looking at what is going to happen to them no matter who becomes the next president. I think that we wake up today in the afternoon in london we see a rise and a dramatic surge in covid cases, filling hospitals. We see in france whats happened with these terrorist attacks that have left one woman beheaded in a church and two other people killed. People in many parts of the world now because of covid are i think speaking, certainly those in the polls i see seeking not chaos and destruction but confidence and confidence. Confidence is a big word. Some see it as becoming necessary and as they see that covid is being mismanaged by so many countries but there are real standouts where it is being managed. We hear that the who chief says this virus will not be defeated unless there is global coordination and cooperation. Thats what the world expects from the United States. We havent had it, there is no coordinated plan to have coalition like they did with whether it was ebola and before that the financial crisis. That hasnt happened and this is what were faced with right now. You mentioned some of the major treaties and agreements that have been disrupted and thrown out the window that most people in europe are a sure these are correct whether its the air and Iran Nuclear Deal for these one set of pressures about nuclear breakouts from iran, whether its the climate records climate accord which most of the rest of the world believe is , a real major electoral issue and a major issue for most of the world. Whether its messing around with the Nato Alliance or whether its seeming to embrace authoritarian leaders at a time when autocracy and authoritarianism seems to be moving further and further into our western democratic space, this is a big worry. And it certainly in the middle east where you have much activity by president from whether its moving the jerusalem, embassy to jerusalem and whether its helping to engineer these normalizations between countries of israel, but lets be honest israel has not been at war with, neither the uae, neither by rain and to a bahrain and to a lesser extent, issues with sudan reedit sudan. You have around as a country that many people see needs to be dealt with in a way to contain it but one of the recent polls that was taken about the middle east shows that an alarming 49 percent of people who were poll ed do not believe that either president crump or biden would be good for the middle east or the remainder 40 percent believe biden would be better but that they did not necessarily embrace all the middle east policies that the Obama Administration embraced. Only 12 percent believe that trump would be better for the middle east. The majority of those who opposed do not agree with moving the embassy particularly in , light of the fact that the continuing the Biggest Issue according to these polls is the still unresolved major issue in that part of the world and that is the Israeli Palestinian state of conflict. So thats just sort of a tour if you like. But i think most people will see want to see an america that perhaps gets into its traditional role of leading coalitions to make the world a better place. Christiana, thank you so much. You. En, do you to after those wonderful contributions, i shall do my best. Erin. Oblem, youre right, trump was a great disruptor and the problem is when the pieces fall down again, they never fall in the same place. The world has changed and whatever trump has done or not done, he hasnt had much effect on the rise in china, which david, i am sure will talk about. He hasnt, you know, covid, there was a lot of patronizing americans on covid by europe and now europe is in a state of infection thats probably worse than the United States. So note democratic government will come out unharmed or unblamed, even though what they all they tried to do is balance Economic Growth versus health. Its not easy and i dont think anyone has done terribly well in a liberal Democratic Society but except perhaps japan, it may be south korea. But europeans look at trump as a nightmare, i have to say. European polls very much appreciate despite his complaining about nato, trump was the president that put more american troops and military efforts into europe, into nato particularly along the russian , border to enhance deterrence so they are quite fond of trump. And his support of authoritarianism is a separate case. In terms of what he has actually done as opposed to what he said, he was good for natos deterrence rate but he has seen europe as a competitor, as a rival. He believes the European Union was somehow set up to confront the United States, not to be an ally. And he has supported brexit , which is essentially a breaking up of the European Union. Repeatedly the heads of france and germany, when are you leaving the European Union . I think hes finally stopped asking that question but it is his unpredictability, his basic distaste for what europe does, for its trade and economic power that has people very very very, very anxious, and at the same time, you know, a Biden Victory would feel like it would return to civilization, but despite the warm words that will ensue, and the happy summit meeting, because after all biden is a kind of romantic transatlanticer one that we havent really had or decades. Despite all that, there is this anxiety that american politics has become so polarized that foreignpolicy has become polarized, americans have this loss of consistency and that biden will be 78 becomes if he becomes president would probably only be a one term president. A republican might easily win again who shares some of the same views as President Trump. There will be a contingency constantly and a kind of wariness and the last point i would make is people are worried about biden asking a lot from on china, which makes them nervous. End he would be the kind of to european efforts of strategic autonomy and a Stronger Security and Foreign Policy in europe like putting it back into the comfortable stand. I will leave it there. The point you raised about whether trump is a headline or a trend line is a fascinating one, at least from a european perspective. You could easily end up with maybe a moderated version of donald trump. And a more coherent one. And a more tactical one. Right. David, over to you. Talking to you from beijing where i have been for the last 2. 5 years. In the context before that i was six years in washington as bureau chief and before that i was in europe covering the European Union and so before i get to china id like to look at , why i think this election even if joe biden wins isnt going to elation that we saw in europe in 2008 when barack obama was elected. Barack obama for the west of europe, and certainly even here in asia, represented a reset. And a recent from what . It was the idea that under george w. Bush america used instrument just strength clumsily and without consulting, without listening, without empathy. It tried to impose simple American Solutions and had broken those places, whether it was iraq or afghanistan, so obama offered. I think we may have lost david . Can you hear me . We can. Obama offered a reset because he was a global citizen, he was empathetic , he was going to consult. Why is this election not going to be the same . The problem with this america, the donald Trump America is not a strong country imposing Solutions Like democracy. At the problem with the world under donald trump is that he seems to have revealed ways in which america itself domestically is a broken country. Lesson that people here in china pulled from americas performance with covid is that individualism is actually a selfishness to the point of refusing to wear face masks or refusing to believe science. It is a broken country. Even if joe biden is elected president , i think for europeans , there is going to be a fear that he will call their bluff and set you complain about the lack of coalitions and multilateral alliances and china. Well, great, lets confront china. There will be a sense of accountability i think in europe that donald trump has paid at least part of the price for mismanagement of covid. Stephen is absolutely right. Worldure the rest of the cannot help but think maybe in four years time, the 40 of americans, 40 something percent of americans who never lost faith in donald trump, to the disbelief of much of the rest of world, that they have not gone away. That the this has been a tremendously divided america, almost 5050 and it cant be wished away, its not just donald trump, its trumps america and trumps americans. And finally, how it is viewed in china . Clearly the Chinese Communist party is not interested in telling a story about accountability at the ballot box for its own people, so the propaganda each year all about corruptiononey and and the fact that voting, that democracy is basically this kind incynical i, it is a game which the powerful and rich and ignore the real interests of the ordinary people and see their own selfish interest. The message from the Propaganda Machine is it does not really matter if we win, then voting changes nothing. It is the same oligarchy and what for . The individualism and individual rights and claims and legitimacy did america uses to criticize countries like china, those have been left incredibly exposed by covid. Covid is not just a Public Health disaster. It is a failure for democracy and as china tells it it is respect for a one party system that suggests a foreign legitimacy which gives you a mandate. The ability to give your people safe and mobilize and organize. We can talk about covid in china. That is not strictly true, because to add to stephens list other liberal democracies that , the fantastic island of taiwan 10 deaths from , covid, a very liberal democracy. So theres nothing inherently good about a communist system but it is the case that americas handling of covid ads adds to Everything Else and means no matter who wins on tuesday , there will not be a kind of barack obama reset. There will be a lot of lingering unhappiness about not just trump but trumps america and what exists of that. Fascinating, the folks who study why certain authoritarian qualities and democratic qualities did better than others argue that there are two or three factors. One is that respect for capacity and confidence. The second is faith in government. Do your point about individualism in america and our past, and our refusal to accept comprehensive solutions to problems. It is no wonder we do not have a sensible gun control policy here or health care. That is critically important, i think. Arehe way other countries going to look at the United States and the broken house metaphor i think is critically important. We will come back to this on the issue of whether or not beijing is conflicted on who they really want as the next president. But let me ask a few questions. Steve, this one is for you. Thateferred to the fact one of the more positive aspects of the trumpets four years years has been natos deterrence. We have talked about with the bad and the ugly is with respect policies. So let me ask the heretical question. Other than deterrence with respect to nato, some criticize the weight he has gone about that as are there any redemptive aspects over the course of the last four years . Steve, we will start with you, but also want to ask david and christiana. I think one has to try to be cold about all of this and i think trump has drawn attention to chinas manipulation of trading regimes and its misuse of the wto and the Security Threat of the chinese scientific progress and Artificial Intelligence and technology and huawei present to the western world. And this is something obama wasnt very interested in, i have to say, and trump overstates things, as he does forever. But the fact is he has gotten britain to pull out of huawei, and sweden and germany. He has woken up europe, which now says in a policy paper it sees china as a systemic rival. Which is stronger language than before. The german vdi, the sort of business groups in germany, have a stronger voice in warning against china trade. Has had to merkel listen. So i think on china, also theres been a kind of wakeup call that trump has trumpeted maybe much too strongly. And frankly, pompeos offer to the Foreign Policy of the ecou. S. Dialogue on china, i think is a very good thing. I think it might work better under a Biden Administration. But in principle, its the way one should respond. So i think you know, that is the something. And also its failed, god knows, but if you look at whats going on for a long time Obama Left Office worried about north korea. Whatever happened there, guess yes, they are still building up stuff, but there has not been the war that obama was really worried about. Iran i think is a big problem. There are lots of things he hasnt done well. But youre asking me to look on the bright side of life. Right, and i didnt ask the question to suggest that theres a symmetrical balance to bring his deft handling of Foreign Policy and some of the incompetency that im seeing. Ok christiane, to you. Look, i tend to not be as cold as an analyst and as an observer and a reporter. I believe in values. I believe that the United States is unique among countries in the world, that its Foreign Policy is based on values, values that are commonly shared amongst those who believe in human rights, those who believe in coalitions, alliances. And i remember distinctly when President Trump won to the shock of everyone in the United States and the rest of the world. All the rest of the world believe in the telegrams and whatever the messages, but actually he was president of the United States and the only person who stood up for values was a woman by the name of chancellor angela merkel, who congratulated the president but said our relationship will be dependent on our joint adherence to our common values, to our alliances, and to everything we have stood for since the defeat terriblem and that world war ii. And i thought that was very brave. I thought it was very brave she stood up for what we expect from the United States. We foreigners im a foreigner expect to believe in what America Sells around the world, which is its unique sense of unique set of values. And i think those have had a very, very tough time over the last four years, for sure. And i also believe that where germany is concerned, maybe has pulled over the russian border, but he has pulled 4000 out of germany. What does that say to europe looking at the United States coming up . I think that president obama said it better than i can in the Washington Post that President Trump is going around on his rallies saying, you know, kim jongun wants me to win. President xi jinping wants me to win. President putin wants me to win. And president obama says thats nothing to brag about. Youve pretty much given them everything they want over the last four years. Had thesea, they great i covered them. I was in singapore and in vietnam for those summits. It was exciting. It was a reality show. Yes, we havent had a war. Were we ever going to have a work . Have a war . But we also havent had a retraction of north koreas scary nuclear buildup. In fact, we have had the opposite. Its building up and building up and building up. I remember during the height of the unpopularity of the george w. Bush regime, the administration, when the world really did not like the United States because of the iraq war. And now you are seeing the polls have shown that the United States is as unpopular around the world as it was at the height of the unpopularity in the 2000s. We saw that it bounced back after the election of barack obama. Perhaps it can bounce back again, but i do agree with you that the landscape has changed. Nobody quite knows whether america will want to be or be able to be a source for Effective Governance and Coalition Building and keeping the world on a basic even keel. The world has changed, and i think people are asking right now if we will be able to go back to that kind of trust in america, certainly americas allies. Our adversaries know where the redlines are. And, you know, is america still the country to be counted on . We are going to get to that question. David, so just to follow up before we move on. What has trump gotten right about china, or from your perspective, any of the issues in asia . I would like to half agree with Stephens Point that there was something about the china policies, that it is helpful to do the opposite. There have been tremendous debates, was it naive to try to engage with china . Did we imagine that china was going to become this jeffersonian democracy if we treated with it . I think some of that debate is overblown. It implies that theres a choice. Frankly, if china was willing to engage, of course we were going to engage. But i dont actually focus on the word engagement when i look back at what was wrong with the obama era china policy. Unfortunately, it did attach quite often to things that Vice President biden said about china. It is complacency. Biden was an absolute champion of the idea that being a democracy, being america if you gives you a head start that china will never catch. That china is growing so fast because never against america, america has a kind of secret source of freedom and free speech and sort of freedom of thought. Which gives you a permanent innovation edge. I think that complacency as yell obama complacentl looking at the chinese building outreach in the china sea, that was a big mistake of their china policy. Thatroblem with foreign is the office of dumb Foreign Policy is not automatically smart Foreign Policy. Sometimes the opposite of dumb is another dumb. I think we need to be careful about breaking the Trump Administrations china policy apart from the president s china policy. One of the things that makes it really hard for beijing to read this four years of the trump firstterm is that there is such a gap between the agenda of the genuine hawks who really do want to become at least, if not decoupled from china, to stop assisting chinas rise. They are in the National Security council, they are at the pentagon, they are at the tap of the state department the top of the state department. Hawks whotichina have a problem with the way that china conducts globalization, with the way china conducts its policies toward china and taiwan, the way that its crushing of freedoms in hong kong that are really real hot and the Trump Administration was complacent. Over the last four years, he has unleashed the hawks as a kind of tactical negotiating move to set the chinese back on their heels. But the chinese worked out eventually that the deal they could do with donald trump would not involve changing their ways or under argument about principles at all. That basically donald trump sees the world like a real estate tycoon. It is a valuable piece of real estate, foreigners should pay rent to access it, and in his view, his predecessors did not charge a high enough rent. He is having a rent review and china is going to pay more. And frankly donald trump as an individual didnt care so much about hong kong or taiwan. That has made his policy extraordinarily aggressive, unprecedentedly aggressive, but also unprecedentedly incoherent. There anyinally, is good to that incoherence and aggression . It is a pretty bleak form of good, but it has forced china by provoking and poking china. Aggressiveredibly behavior towards americas allies over the last 18 months, because china does not want to directly confront america just yet. Tooamerica is far strong for that. Canada, britain, sweden, the European Union, south korea, the list goes on and on and theres. You go and break the knees to send an officer. Donald trump has unleashed for xi jinping to reveal that all that happy talk about harmonious future and solutions, at the end of the day he is going to break your knees if you dont want to do what he says. Fascinating. So lets move on to the question, not a Voter Preferences with respect to trump or biden, but allies and adversary preferences. You have discretion here. Pick your favorite ally and adversary, and tell me who you countryat particular prefers. I could ask specific questions of each of you, but we will see how this goes. Stephen, lets start with the. Pick an ally and an adversary. Who do they want to win and why . Remains the most important country in europe. I am desperate for a biden win. Angela merkel was never trumps kind of girl, right . As she is coming to the end of andlong period of power statesmanlike behavior, if i can say that about a woman leaving a, she is germany that is really at the cusp of things. Germans love democratic president s who can watch polls. So they are very eager for biden. As an adversary, lets say putin. I do think very much putin still wants trump to win, partly because i dont know if he has anything on trump, but trump certainly behaves as if he does and putins interest is dividing power and creating more for russian influence in the and estonia,erbia, all these places. The czech republic. He is doing a reasonably good job of this, but a Trump Presidency would create further fissures which would keep putin happier. Christianne, to you. Ally and adversary . Have we lost you . Sorry. I guess. Ally i would consider benjamin and also and israel, mbs as he is known in saudi arabia. They would have reasons to want President Trump to be reelected. I think one has to really ask, what has happened in that region . Administration particularly around the coalescing issue of building up an antiiran bulwark in that part of the world. But what it has actually done, President Trump giving pretty much everything to vega Benjamin Netanyahu in that settlement that has gone nowhere, what does it actually mean for israel not to have an american leader who actually can try to keep pushing an equitable twostate solution . What does it mean for israel . Because it might be negative in the end for israel, its demographics, its democratic status. I think also we should really ask ourselves a very serious question, both in terms of fossil fuels. I will use a qualifier, but fossil fuel adoration, and authoritarian and strategic directions. The United States keeps bolstering and propping up the saudi regime. In the world we ane in now that you can have unfettered, unconditional relationship with saudi arabia that has shown itself even now in the guise of the socalled to have no qualms, and the cia says they believe he ordered not just the murder but the dismemberment of a human colleague,was our who was an american resident, and who was working for the Washington Post, all because he wanted to encourage that country toward reform, which mbs says he wants. Is still putting womens rights activists in jail. Does that make sense . They might want President Trump to win again, but maybe all american leaders now have to decide how they act toward that part of the region. As an adversary, clearly iran. N has been the target of has been the target more than any other country of President Trumps direct action and certainly his wrath. So far over four years, you have had breaking out of the Iran Nuclear Deal by the United States and maximum pressure sanctions. If the aim was to topple the itnian regime, which hasnt happened. The iranian Islamic Republic is 40 years old. So what does that mean . They have kept their powder dry. You have seen many articles and you know it better than i do. They have sat on their hands and tried to do every thing possible not to provoke the United States at this moment leading up to the elections so as not to give any excuse, any actions against them. But clearly, that is a massive country where american policy needs to figure out how to deal with it. So far, the same action of maximum pressure has simply not worked for 40 years. Quick question before i move on to david, can you give us your assessment of how Boris Johnson is looking . Silly me, i am sitting right here in london. This is a government full of ideologues. They are maybe many Trump Administrations. There is american populism and nationalism. They have been judged very harshly on their covid response, which is pretty incoherent. Aereas Boris Johnson won convincing election about a year ago, and overwhelming victory a 30 ago, he is below because of the handling of covid. Macronarcon and while and merkel are coming up with a second wave lockdown, we have not had this here. But this brexit thing, and i am thinking they hope people will forget about brexit in the midst of dying, it is a real problem. I dont know what the latest negotiations with europe have done, but they have gotten nowhere close yet to form a deal with the closest eu partner. Boris johnson obviously hopes President Trump would win and keep winning and keep staying there and give him the best trade deal, and they are worried now. In the United States, you have british officials going over entering in with the biden camp to see if they can cement relations there. You all know this better than i do, but no matter who is president , both the Trump White House and the democrats have said if Boris Johnsons government does anything to threaten the Northern Ireland peace accord, which it is yurrently doing, the would not vote for a free trade agreement. Nancy pelosi has said that to me many times. The Northern Ireland official has made that clear to the british government. Thanks. David, you wrote a fascinating piece which i read on chinas conflict with respect to trump and biden. You used the phrase two devil s. Are the chinese complected . Ways thatre all these donald trump is doing extraordinary damage around the world. The country of south korea is an example. They are an incredibly important force not just to keep north to to keep north korea up. Donald trump offered plenty of money and they pay four times more than they currently do to have american troops on their soil. He has not just amended that money. Tohas gone out of his way humiliate the government because they are not as cool as his cool friends, the north Korean Leader kim jongun. But the humiliation being wreaked on south korea. Impossible to see why any American Government would do this for what is not a lot of money. It has done extra ordinary damage. Adversary, china, clearly. There are two camps in china. They dont really know which they prefer, but they dont think much of either of them. Usually, the leader knows both of them while, but Vice President biden was his counterpart before xi jinping became the leader. Barack obama has spent a lot of time with xi jinping. The truth is who you ask matters. If you speak to the chinese whose job is to worry about Economic Growth, they are quite content to a return to the kind of status quo that allowed american hightech companies to sell components to giants like huawei with america. People who worry about chinas gdp numbers, if they return to joe biden meant a return to that previous smoother sailing for globalization, they would take that. If you talk to people whose job is to worry about National Security, the deck the darker side of the chinese regime, they would say four more years of trump would be just great because he is destroying alliances in asia and around the world. If he was to destroy america for four more years, why would china get in the way . Final thing is fundamentally, china is so cynical about america, particularly now, and it is convinced they have been containing chinas rise, that they dont want to share the top table. They are convincing themselves that ultimately it doesnt really matter who is the american president because america has shown us that selfishis an arrogant, country. It is almost like a timing issue. You might want to buy some time with biden. If you think it is time to have the fight now like the hardliners need to do, bring in trump and let him weaken the west more. We have a few more minutes left. I want to ask a question on behalf of sarah, who has asked i will ask steve to answer this one because i know time is short. You are all foreign correspondents during the course of your careers. Do you interpret the increasingly hostile attacks by the Trump Administration on the media and on the press . The longerterm implications of damaging and dangerous, but can any of you, stephen and the beginning, offer a comment or two on that . I find it deeply depressing. I have a little button that says enemy of the people that i used to wear around because trump said we were the enemy of the people. I dont find that very funny anymore. Trump has used us, particularly my newspaper, which he actually loves and which he grew up with, we are the puppets in his puppet show. He does his rallies, he does his demagoguery. Nothing we do can be believed, so everything we do that harms him is obviously fake. Even the other day, he said the polls are all fake. The real polls, which are the ones in his own head, have him going ahead. There was always mistrust of the media, just to be brief. Clearly, that was always true. Trumpsou combine attacks on the Mainstream Media with facebook eating and destroying local media, you have a very difficult and dangerous situation going forward. Anybody else . Yeah, i would add to that in all the places i have covered, in all the wars and authoritarian parts of the world, this is fabulous fodder for all of those people who have no respect and no desire to know anything about the truth or what is real. All these leaders who want to know their people who want to tell their people lies and keep them in the dark and wreak havoc have now inspiration from the land of the free and the home of the brave. Over, even in all europe. We have talked about hungary and other places. Are out thereple in terms of leaders and those who have no respect for a free or independent press raising the issue of fake news. You know what fake news means, right . It means stuff i dont like you saying about me. We need to carry on being who we are and fulfilling our mission, certainly in the United States we call ourselves there is a certain weight in the pillars of civil society. I dont know why we give endless whereveratever leader who spouts lies and attacks. It is not real, it is not objective, it is not neutral. The sense degrading of public discourse, public debate, and most importantly in the most evolved democracy in the world, degrading peoples faith in the power of democracies and in the legitimacy and integrity of democracy, and free and fair and independent information, all of which i have risked my life. That is brilliantly and eloquently expressed. And going forward, one of the problems that we are going to face in repairing americans broken house in repairing americas broken house is called truth decay. Problem inuctural restoring confidence in those basic institutions, such as the post office, the u. S. Congress, the fbi. Tople just dont know what believe and they are easily led to believe things which are untethered from critical thinking. It is incredibly frustrating. We have almost come to the end of the hour. I want to ask one additional question. Assuming joe biden wins, and i am all for the notion that when you are in a hold of most important element is to stop digging, there will be an to avement with respect more rational, logical conduct of american Foreign Policy. Itr biden can restore is not the 1990s anymore. It is not even 2008 anymore. I dont know. Bidens the question is if wins and we go into a transition, lets assume for the sake of argument that there is no contested election. You dont have a period of litigation, rival electoral slates, compromised elections. Hopefully that is not the case. Concerns withhave respect to the transition of what a Trump Administration might do within the period o between an election and an inauguration, in an effort to constrain an incoming president or, i cant imagine what other motives might drive it. Maybe you dont. I do. Worry he will bomb iran. That is what really worries me. Wherel bomb places construction is obviously going on now that the americans have pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal. That is my big worry. That is your concern . David, can i put you on the spot and asked whether or not there is a taiwan issue . I dont think the main island of taiwan. Where trumpcenario will pardon everybody in the white house and does not have time for Foreign Policy. There is a real danger on this side. If there is a contested result, which makes america look completely hopeless and distracted, you can imagine china and others pulling off ventures to try to show others in the region that they dont have a friend in america, and that could be a very bumpy time. Christiana, your thoughts on this . We have come to the end of the hour. Learned a ton. I i think it is extraordinary that we are talking christiane, you are in london, steven is in brussels, and david, you are in beijing. You are laying a ground truth that is incredibly authentic. I want to thank each of you. Sorry to our listeners who we did not have more time for questions. Next time for sure. Healthy, and as happy as you can be in the runup with respect to the next five days or so. Thank you, aaron. Take care. Looknday night on q a, a at mailin ballots and Election Security with the Bipartisan Policy Center and cnet. Florida may be a state that could be called by 10 00 or 11 00 on Election Night because they count so much of their early voting quickly. We have state like michigan and wisconsin and pennsylvania, states that could be determinative in this election, and they have policies that limit how fast or how early they can count their absentee ballots. I think cybersecurity experts are less concerned right now about the threats to vote counting than they have been in years past, and that is a really good thing. That is because of the increase in paper records and increase coordination among the states and federal government. There are a lot of reasons to feel this election will be better. Mailin ballots and Election Security with matthew while and with Amy Coney Barrett confirmed and sworn in as the newest justice, the Supreme Court with nine justices heres five oral arguments next week. Listen live at cspan. Org supremecourt. Hear arguements. Jones versus mississippi. Gordon versus the United States, and fulton versus city of philadelphia. Listen to oral arguments live or ondemand at cspan. Org supremecourt. Vice president mike pence complained in arizona campaigned in arizona, making stops in tucson and flagstaff. He told supporters President Trump has the best economic plan for their future. President trump lost those cities in 2016, but won the support