and the need for a new strategy reflects the fact that today s principle threat no longer comes from a centralized al qaeda leadership. instead, it comes from decentralized al qaeda affiliates and extremists with agendas focused in the country where they operate and this lessons the possibility of large scale 9/11 attacks against the homeland but heightens the danger of u.s. personnel overseas being attacked as we saw in benghazi. it heightens the danger to less defensible targets as we saw in a shopping mall in nairobi. so we have to develop a strategy that matches this diffuse threat. one that expands our reach without sending forces that stretch our military too thin or stir up local resentments.
opinion helped isolate russia right away. because of american leadership, the world immediately condemned russian actions, europe and g-7 joined us to impose sanctions, nato reinforced our commitment to allies and imf is helping to stabilize ukraine s economy. osc monitors brought the eyes of the world to unstable parts of ukraine and this mobilization of world opinion and international institutions served as a counterweight to russian prop gran propagand and and this weekend ukrainians voted by the millions. yesterday i spoke to their next president. we don t know how the situation will play out and there will remain grave challenges ahead but standing with our allies on behalf of international order
our alliance system in asia and climate change. the first american president to take it seriously and do something about it with upcoming epa decision on coal. there s no question, wolf, there s a perception around the world that america has stepped back and pulled back on throttle of leadership. the reason for that is the syria decision backing away from confronting president assad last september and the weakened european response on ukraine but this is an opportunity for the president to give his direction for the way forward. he has 31 months left. that s a very long time. standby, nick. michelle kosinski is our white house correspondent. how specific do we know the president will be when it comes to a new strategy of directly arming moderate syrian rebels who are fighting the bashar al assad regime? it looks likes we re not paying attention to you. we got prepared remarks from the president. we ve seen his address in terms
example. we can t exempt ourselves from the rules that apply to everybody else. we can t call on others to make commitments to combat climate change if a lot of our political leaders deny that it s taken place. we can t try to resolve problems in the south china sea when we have refused to make sure that the law of the sea convention is ratified by our united states senate despite the fact that our top military leaders say the treaty advances our national security. that s not leadership. that s retreat. that s not strength. that s weakness. it would be utterly foreign to
america has rarely been stronger relative to the rest of the world. those who argue otherwise, who suggest that america is in decline or has seen its global leadership slip away, are either misreading history or engaged in partisan politics. think about it. our military has no pier. the odds of a direct threat against us by any nation are low and do not come close to the dangers we faced during the cold war. our economy remains the most dynamic on earth. our businesses the most innovative. each year we grow more energy independent. from europe to asia, we are the hub of alliances unrivalled in the history of nations.