position of -- to have the foresight of information at his fingertips and go through the possible consequences of what appear to be potentially very big shifts in u.s. foreign policy. we going to move from a situation where america is trying to manage china's rise to a more confrontational policy as gordon was saying. that needs to be something that's discussed through a wider prism of foreign policy thought than just a conversation with a president elect on the telephone. >> gordon, a lot of these, you know, leaders of nations are trying to figure out where trump stands on a lot of things here. and it's still very cloudy. but is there a problem with a little bit of uncertainty? >> well, you know, of course there can be. the united states maintains the international system. people look to us for consistency. and that's important. but, you know, with regard to the chinese, you know, they have challenged the two previous presidents in the first months in office.