Transcripts For CSPAN2 Richard Haass The World 20240712 : co

Richard wears many hats. Of ambassador. And the future of afghanistan. Frequent morning joe contributor and of course our fearless leader the president of non counsel for relations. We are listening to Richard Haass the author and academic who has just come out with yet another book the world a brief history. He calls it a little bit of a departure. I want to start richard because it was only after you turned in the manuscript that the world was confronted by the covid19 pandemic and in the roughly two months since that happened they had highlighted so many of the teams in concepts. What does the pandemic tell us what is the pandemic tell us about the world right now. Thanks also to everyone on this call. Needless to say i hope everybody is well. As we all get through this one day at a time when groundhog day at a time. What i think the pandemic tells us first and foremost is that the world matters and that is an obvious thing for member of the council on foreign relations. The world matters what happens around the world doesnt stay there. A virus broke out. It got worse. Ultimately spread through china and the United States and elsewhere around the world. It was terrorists trained in afghanistan other various times it was what weve seen with Climate Change coming from everywhere. What this should tell us is that the two oceans on the atlantic in the pacific are there. There is no drawbridge. Sovereignty and whatever else it is we are asked affected by what happens in the world the most Important Message to take care is the world matters. Sticking her have in the sand. Whatever else you want to call it is simply not a serious revival strategy. You talk about the interconnectedness of the globe and the dependence how has the american response to this Global Crisis reflected some of the things that you bring up. To tackle the vaccines. This has not been a good experience shall be say but again it begins with the fact that we are connected. Globalization is many things. How we respond to is the choice. As you said. We chose not to participate in the lead effort. It reduces the chance that of that effort will succeed. It means if it were to succeed we would be very hardpressed to make the argument that we ought to be towards the front of the queue. You werent there when we need you. Now you need this. I think even more which probably hurt us has been the example we had set just an important part of what foreignpolicy is about. Not what diplomats say or do. As important as those things are. The functioning and vibrancy of democracy. When we have equality for all americans. When our economy grows at a healthy clip. And no one around the world gets up in the morning i want to do this just like america. I really respect how they are doing it. What about the other chapter in the book. The World Health Organization. They had threatened to withdraw funding at a time when people like bill and Melinda Gates have double down and increased funding. One of the realities is the enormous gap. There is an enormous gap. We used this phrase all the time in my Business International community and there really isnt one. The World Health Organization like most organizations struggles to try to narrow that gap between the challenge and response but its no stronger is no stronger than the major powers we let in. What this tells us is we see this time and time again. Whether is the un or the security council. They are only as strong as again they are allowed. Either we have to improve after this crisis or i would say we need to find ways to supplement and work around it. To come up with other ways of pulling our revenues. If it is a dead end. The other pandemic. Is that unilateralism. You mentioned china and its role in this pandemic. There has been a lot of criticism of intelligence. What is the role that china has played in this crisis. It reminds people that if you put it to the society. China now still continues to push off request for any sort of investigation it is the reminder of what the nature of china is. To help with the organization. With our response to it. That is the basic message. While this is going on have been doing some pretty nasty things. In hong kong just to mention one other thing. This isnt necessarily a rationale ive also been writing about this. We now need to place the hospitality at the center of our hospitality. We need to push back and criticize where need be. Wouldnt it be enough different and much better 21st century if we could persuade china to work with us. Against future pandemics. For example terrain and north koreas ambition. I think the real foreignpolicy challenge. Was how do we push back against china when necessary but also how do we protect pockets if you will of cooperation. That will be a major challenge to the next generation. You talked about how the pandemic has similarities to other Global Crisis. In what ways do those challenge they dont respect borders you can deny them but you cant insulate them from the consequences. One of the incident reactions. The rejection of science and experts. We see it on the pandemic. We also see regularly on Climate Change. It is is greater respect for facts. The wide respect for algae. I Welcome Development you cant ignore them. And you cant can solve them by themselves. I keep circling back to the rejection of isolationism. Let me say one other thing. The first part of the book is about history. And whats so interesting as how much of the last hundred years were about the great power jacket. Wed world war i. Youre very managed. We can have competition with china. What really defines this era that were living in i would predict the major challenges of this year are not so much great power and competition while that continues to exist the biggest challenge could ball be how we content with these global challenges. Where future pandemics. It is necessary one of the lessons of this its not sufficient. I just want to highlight my very dogeared and highlighted a copy of the book. It is called the world of introduction. It is now on amazons bestseller ranked 53 among books. Its number two in world history. And yet you said and i must say one of the most fun aspects. What made you write this book is a bit of the departure from the 15 others that youve written or edited. Whos counting. If you are young person say in high school or college that means that you were born are born right around the turnofthecentury. That means your life will be a t century life. How many young people dont even have rudimentary knowledge of this world. In many ways they could can make or break their lives. This book came out of a day where rarely enough for me i was out fishing of all things. I met this young man who is going from the junior to senior year of stamford. And he was a Computer Science major. What he said he study when you dont study. I actually havent have any. How many of the economics courses. Then when i came back to the council it was not an exception. You can graduate from virtually any college or university in the country and avoid these courses. They are not required. What made me want to write this book is that some the americans lack the foundation and knowledge in order to among other things hold elected representatives in officials to account. How can they walk into a voting booth this november if they havent read up on the position of the candidate. If they havent said that doesnt make sense. I want people to essentially get empowered so they can become better informed. That is essentially what this is about. I think you are fighting at the illiteracy. I know thats one of your missions. I take exception to the fact that you have to mention my alma mater there was distribution requirements. Part of the joy again of reading this and part of the reason why i highlighted this was i was in an era of specialist nothing but african history. And really miss out on the early chapters of the book. And highlight the global perspective on all of it. History is extraordinary valuable. History doesnt repeat itself but it rhymes. It really does in many cases inform our decisionmaking. Ive been lucky enough to work with four president s. History was brought into the conversation like anyone else. It can be used or abused. It is really helpful in order to make sense of the flood of stuff that is coming at us. There was just of enough such a flood of information. But they needed was something of a filter to make better sense of it. My son is going through ap history testing. Its right on the tip of my tongue. I was recommended highly and clearly. Give us a sense of your writing process because you are and we know you have a day job and there are few crisis that you are handling. What is a process like. This book was different in the sense that i do think really hard about what went into it. And the whole idea was not to write a book that assumed anything. One way i write is by taking a lot of long walks around central park and thinking about it. When i thing think about that. I write most mornings pretty early. Never to accept those. Spend a few hours when its quiet. A few hours in the morning. And then a few hours on the weekend. And how likely i can write quickly. That is the approach. Are you writing before ready before or after the appearance. The other when i said is dont think of a writing as a sequential process. First you do all of your research and then you do all your writing but instead start writing my wife susan is an editor is what they want to do. Think about not just your conclusion to think a lot with why youre doing it. What theyre trying to accomplish and then do it before you get buried into the details. I read a number of reviews of your book. The one in the New York Times was a quick that i should have written down. Something along the lines of departure from his cautious style. And into the position. You did make a calculated choice to do it. Why to toe into it i wanted to write this book in a way that wasnt an argument. I wanted this to book that was foundational. Is that to not to tell people what to think. But rather to give them the background and the tools. As i read what i had written i realize that certain teams were so intrinsic criticism of isolation. I sat at the end. I would come out and basically say we can argue all of the details we want about what our goal should be in the world. Those are legitimate policy arguments. I did not think there was argument about ignoring the world were thinking we could. It was a game of solitaire. Those points were so basic that i have to come out of the closet on those. If you were sitting in the state Department Today what overarching advice would you give if they want to play with diplomacy. Allies are real force multipliers. I would make a bigger push for explaining Foreign Policy. Recreating the foreign service. Its one of the real historic strengths of this country. They are essential whether they are soldiers or people in the intelligent world. People that are trained to represent this country. It is beyond the purview of the state department to argue what even the government should be doing domestically. It is not beyond the purview of the state department to argue for our participating in collective scientific efforts here. It is not beyond the purview of the state department to be designing the economic help that they would coordinate with others. They would get through this and then recover afterwards. Its obviously not beyond the review in the state department to focus on all the other problems. There is no giant pause button in the world. North korea is still developing nuclear weapons. And gradually moving to the 2015 agreement. We would have if in fact it did choose to make a for a nuclear weapon. Russia is still occupied crimea and parts of eastern ukraine. We can go around the world. My point is simply that we need the state department to stay focused on the rest of Foreign Policy. One of the things i would say about the crisis is we have all of the old problems in the world now we have a whole new set of problems and all this comes at a time where the United States is going to be focused and we are to be spending trillions of dollars not on the world but on ourselves. Its a really dangerous combination. In this case the rest of the world. You have said not just in the book but on your numerous talent vision appearance is that this is a very precarious time. That the order and the lack there of. And the decline and want you to dig into what you think is being ignored most while we are preoccupied with this. Speemac i do think that they really have a critical moment. For a lot of my career when i was younger. European nuclear forces. But all that took place as intricate as it was to some extent as important as it was. It all took place within a predefined framework. When we got up in the morning with the cold war. We knew what we were going to wake up to. What is so interesting about this moment in history as there is far fewer forgiving about what the United States will do. It is increasingly unraveled. The institutions could not keep up with change. They had rising powers that cannot be accommodated and most of all the United States is not prepared to play its traditional role so largely right a moment of history where we have all of this. Now we have the overlay of this pandemic. And to meet the real question is whether we are to have the bandwidth to deal not with the problems of the pandemic but all of the other problems that are out there. In a macro sense that is my biggest concern. Two problems in particular. One is the u. S. China relationship as it goes so will go a lot of the century and i worry about this relationship which was deteriorating throughout this crisis and now it is accelerating. The other situation is Climate Change. Even though it is another form of a Global Crisis unlike covid19 it is a slow motion a crisis. Its harder to galvanize either a national or International Response but we saw the fires in australia, the floods, the warmer weather. It will have all sorts of agricultural contacts on us. Our response is not even close to being adequate in before the century is over it is quite possible that Climate Change will be the defining challenge and what we are doing we are losing the moment. To deal with it while it is still in some ways manageable. I will ask my last question and then i will open up to members who are online and will be able to present those questions. To borrow of praise dash make a phrase from the previous book. What are the forces this United States that is pulling back from the historic positions. A russia that doesnt buy into any of the principles or restraints we are seen growth in authoritarianism. The biggest challenge for the whole european project that has stabilized europe in ways that have been fantastic for the last 70 years. They question the authority of the institution. And the economics. I could go around. Let me stop you on one. How do you lasso russia. We have seen weve seen all sorts of examples with them projecting for us in influence in american elections. How do you lasso them and confront that power. Lasts is an interesting word. But we still have to act with restraint. Nuclear might to destroy the entire planet. We do want to negotiate nuclear ops. I would say at a minimum we dont need to add a nuclear competition. I think in terms of making ourselves less vulnerable we should do what we can but also with sanctions. And hes quite vulnerable. They paid and him enormous price. And second of all the plummeting up oil prices has really hurt that russian economy. It is onedimensional. I would on one hand show a russia respect. I never thought diplomacy was a favor. It is the tool of National Security. I think this administration i often disagree with it. One era i thought was right to shore up ukraine. Just push back against mister putin. We are were going to look for some ways to interfere. You have a chapter on cyber tara. With the misinformation and the cyber terror that is coming out of the rope nations. It is a totally regulated space. Very few laws and sheriffs. Thats kind of what we have. We cant we dont have the equivalent the United States and china said there would not be theft in the economic secrets. They are not the only players on the chessboard. Also with europe. The modern developed democracies lets start there. They are market oriented. Lets set the rules there and then we can tell the others that we want to have a economic relationship with us. Heres what can be. Its 5 30. I want to be nothing if it not prompt. I will introduce the question and answer session. Just know that there are north of 500 people participating so we will try to get as many questions as possible. You can hear from many people. As a reminder please kick on the race hand icon. We will take the first question. This is what we are looking forward to. What is going well if anything. That we should Pay Attention to. May be double down on. Is a good question. I do have a default option which is towards the negative. One thing that is not present in this world is great power. It is worth pointing out than we have a cold war. That is not defining thats obviously a good thing. To talk about positive things in the area of health. But life spans are far longer today than they were just a generation ago all sorts of diseases had been largely eradicated. I think thats really important. Lets put aside the recession. With economic standards of living in the United States and around the world its much higher than it was decades ago even though in recent years there had been some setbacks with democracy. They fought the world. Its far more open than it was. They have brought us some extraordinary advances and want to hopscotch around the world. Twenty to 25 years ago. Now it is one of the poster child of a successful country in many ways in the americas. They have come out of some very difficult times. Asia is still a very x successful region of the world. I think there is still a lot of things to be positive about. If i wanted to take a snap shot from a Richard Haass<\/a> the author and academic who has just come out with yet another book the world a brief history. He calls it a little bit of a departure. I want to start richard because it was only after you turned in the manuscript that the world was confronted by the covid19 pandemic and in the roughly two months since that happened they had highlighted so many of the teams in concepts. What does the pandemic tell us what is the pandemic tell us about the world right now. Thanks also to everyone on this call. Needless to say i hope everybody is well. As we all get through this one day at a time when groundhog day at a time. What i think the pandemic tells us first and foremost is that the world matters and that is an obvious thing for member of the council on foreign relations. The world matters what happens around the world doesnt stay there. A virus broke out. It got worse. Ultimately spread through china and the United States<\/a> and elsewhere around the world. It was terrorists trained in afghanistan other various times it was what weve seen with Climate Change<\/a> coming from everywhere. What this should tell us is that the two oceans on the atlantic in the pacific are there. There is no drawbridge. Sovereignty and whatever else it is we are asked affected by what happens in the world the most Important Message<\/a> to take care is the world matters. Sticking her have in the sand. Whatever else you want to call it is simply not a serious revival strategy. You talk about the interconnectedness of the globe and the dependence how has the american response to this Global Crisis<\/a> reflected some of the things that you bring up. To tackle the vaccines. This has not been a good experience shall be say but again it begins with the fact that we are connected. Globalization is many things. How we respond to is the choice. As you said. We chose not to participate in the lead effort. It reduces the chance that of that effort will succeed. It means if it were to succeed we would be very hardpressed to make the argument that we ought to be towards the front of the queue. You werent there when we need you. Now you need this. I think even more which probably hurt us has been the example we had set just an important part of what foreignpolicy is about. Not what diplomats say or do. As important as those things are. The functioning and vibrancy of democracy. When we have equality for all americans. When our economy grows at a healthy clip. And no one around the world gets up in the morning i want to do this just like america. I really respect how they are doing it. What about the other chapter in the book. The World Health Organization<\/a>. They had threatened to withdraw funding at a time when people like bill and Melinda Gates<\/a> have double down and increased funding. One of the realities is the enormous gap. There is an enormous gap. We used this phrase all the time in my Business International<\/a> community and there really isnt one. The World Health Organization<\/a> like most organizations struggles to try to narrow that gap between the challenge and response but its no stronger is no stronger than the major powers we let in. What this tells us is we see this time and time again. Whether is the un or the security council. They are only as strong as again they are allowed. Either we have to improve after this crisis or i would say we need to find ways to supplement and work around it. To come up with other ways of pulling our revenues. If it is a dead end. The other pandemic. Is that unilateralism. You mentioned china and its role in this pandemic. There has been a lot of criticism of intelligence. What is the role that china has played in this crisis. It reminds people that if you put it to the society. China now still continues to push off request for any sort of investigation it is the reminder of what the nature of china is. To help with the organization. With our response to it. That is the basic message. While this is going on have been doing some pretty nasty things. In hong kong just to mention one other thing. This isnt necessarily a rationale ive also been writing about this. We now need to place the hospitality at the center of our hospitality. We need to push back and criticize where need be. Wouldnt it be enough different and much better 21st century if we could persuade china to work with us. Against future pandemics. For example terrain and north koreas ambition. I think the real foreignpolicy challenge. Was how do we push back against china when necessary but also how do we protect pockets if you will of cooperation. That will be a major challenge to the next generation. You talked about how the pandemic has similarities to other Global Crisis<\/a>. In what ways do those challenge they dont respect borders you can deny them but you cant insulate them from the consequences. One of the incident reactions. The rejection of science and experts. We see it on the pandemic. We also see regularly on Climate Change<\/a>. It is is greater respect for facts. The wide respect for algae. I Welcome Development<\/a> you cant ignore them. And you cant can solve them by themselves. I keep circling back to the rejection of isolationism. Let me say one other thing. The first part of the book is about history. And whats so interesting as how much of the last hundred years were about the great power jacket. Wed world war i. Youre very managed. We can have competition with china. What really defines this era that were living in i would predict the major challenges of this year are not so much great power and competition while that continues to exist the biggest challenge could ball be how we content with these global challenges. Where future pandemics. It is necessary one of the lessons of this its not sufficient. I just want to highlight my very dogeared and highlighted a copy of the book. It is called the world of introduction. It is now on amazons bestseller ranked 53 among books. Its number two in world history. And yet you said and i must say one of the most fun aspects. What made you write this book is a bit of the departure from the 15 others that youve written or edited. Whos counting. If you are young person say in high school or college that means that you were born are born right around the turnofthecentury. That means your life will be a t century life. How many young people dont even have rudimentary knowledge of this world. In many ways they could can make or break their lives. This book came out of a day where rarely enough for me i was out fishing of all things. I met this young man who is going from the junior to senior year of stamford. And he was a Computer Science<\/a> major. What he said he study when you dont study. I actually havent have any. How many of the economics courses. Then when i came back to the council it was not an exception. You can graduate from virtually any college or university in the country and avoid these courses. They are not required. What made me want to write this book is that some the americans lack the foundation and knowledge in order to among other things hold elected representatives in officials to account. How can they walk into a voting booth this november if they havent read up on the position of the candidate. If they havent said that doesnt make sense. I want people to essentially get empowered so they can become better informed. That is essentially what this is about. I think you are fighting at the illiteracy. I know thats one of your missions. I take exception to the fact that you have to mention my alma mater there was distribution requirements. Part of the joy again of reading this and part of the reason why i highlighted this was i was in an era of specialist nothing but african history. And really miss out on the early chapters of the book. And highlight the global perspective on all of it. History is extraordinary valuable. History doesnt repeat itself but it rhymes. It really does in many cases inform our decisionmaking. Ive been lucky enough to work with four president s. History was brought into the conversation like anyone else. It can be used or abused. It is really helpful in order to make sense of the flood of stuff that is coming at us. There was just of enough such a flood of information. But they needed was something of a filter to make better sense of it. My son is going through ap history testing. Its right on the tip of my tongue. I was recommended highly and clearly. Give us a sense of your writing process because you are and we know you have a day job and there are few crisis that you are handling. What is a process like. This book was different in the sense that i do think really hard about what went into it. And the whole idea was not to write a book that assumed anything. One way i write is by taking a lot of long walks around central park and thinking about it. When i thing think about that. I write most mornings pretty early. Never to accept those. Spend a few hours when its quiet. A few hours in the morning. And then a few hours on the weekend. And how likely i can write quickly. That is the approach. Are you writing before ready before or after the appearance. The other when i said is dont think of a writing as a sequential process. First you do all of your research and then you do all your writing but instead start writing my wife susan is an editor is what they want to do. Think about not just your conclusion to think a lot with why youre doing it. What theyre trying to accomplish and then do it before you get buried into the details. I read a number of reviews of your book. The one in the New York Times<\/a> was a quick that i should have written down. Something along the lines of departure from his cautious style. And into the position. You did make a calculated choice to do it. Why to toe into it i wanted to write this book in a way that wasnt an argument. I wanted this to book that was foundational. Is that to not to tell people what to think. But rather to give them the background and the tools. As i read what i had written i realize that certain teams were so intrinsic criticism of isolation. I sat at the end. I would come out and basically say we can argue all of the details we want about what our goal should be in the world. Those are legitimate policy arguments. I did not think there was argument about ignoring the world were thinking we could. It was a game of solitaire. Those points were so basic that i have to come out of the closet on those. If you were sitting in the state Department Today<\/a> what overarching advice would you give if they want to play with diplomacy. Allies are real force multipliers. I would make a bigger push for explaining Foreign Policy<\/a>. Recreating the foreign service. Its one of the real historic strengths of this country. They are essential whether they are soldiers or people in the intelligent world. People that are trained to represent this country. It is beyond the purview of the state department to argue what even the government should be doing domestically. It is not beyond the purview of the state department to argue for our participating in collective scientific efforts here. It is not beyond the purview of the state department to be designing the economic help that they would coordinate with others. They would get through this and then recover afterwards. Its obviously not beyond the review in the state department to focus on all the other problems. There is no giant pause button in the world. North korea is still developing nuclear weapons. And gradually moving to the 2015 agreement. We would have if in fact it did choose to make a for a nuclear weapon. Russia is still occupied crimea and parts of eastern ukraine. We can go around the world. My point is simply that we need the state department to stay focused on the rest of Foreign Policy<\/a>. One of the things i would say about the crisis is we have all of the old problems in the world now we have a whole new set of problems and all this comes at a time where the United States<\/a> is going to be focused and we are to be spending trillions of dollars not on the world but on ourselves. Its a really dangerous combination. In this case the rest of the world. You have said not just in the book but on your numerous talent vision appearance is that this is a very precarious time. That the order and the lack there of. And the decline and want you to dig into what you think is being ignored most while we are preoccupied with this. Speemac i do think that they really have a critical moment. For a lot of my career when i was younger. European nuclear forces. But all that took place as intricate as it was to some extent as important as it was. It all took place within a predefined framework. When we got up in the morning with the cold war. We knew what we were going to wake up to. What is so interesting about this moment in history as there is far fewer forgiving about what the United States<\/a> will do. It is increasingly unraveled. The institutions could not keep up with change. They had rising powers that cannot be accommodated and most of all the United States<\/a> is not prepared to play its traditional role so largely right a moment of history where we have all of this. Now we have the overlay of this pandemic. And to meet the real question is whether we are to have the bandwidth to deal not with the problems of the pandemic but all of the other problems that are out there. In a macro sense that is my biggest concern. Two problems in particular. One is the u. S. China relationship as it goes so will go a lot of the century and i worry about this relationship which was deteriorating throughout this crisis and now it is accelerating. The other situation is Climate Change<\/a>. Even though it is another form of a Global Crisis<\/a> unlike covid19 it is a slow motion a crisis. Its harder to galvanize either a national or International Response<\/a> but we saw the fires in australia, the floods, the warmer weather. It will have all sorts of agricultural contacts on us. Our response is not even close to being adequate in before the century is over it is quite possible that Climate Change<\/a> will be the defining challenge and what we are doing we are losing the moment. To deal with it while it is still in some ways manageable. I will ask my last question and then i will open up to members who are online and will be able to present those questions. To borrow of praise dash make a phrase from the previous book. What are the forces this United States<\/a> that is pulling back from the historic positions. A russia that doesnt buy into any of the principles or restraints we are seen growth in authoritarianism. The biggest challenge for the whole european project that has stabilized europe in ways that have been fantastic for the last 70 years. They question the authority of the institution. And the economics. I could go around. Let me stop you on one. How do you lasso russia. We have seen weve seen all sorts of examples with them projecting for us in influence in american elections. How do you lasso them and confront that power. Lasts is an interesting word. But we still have to act with restraint. Nuclear might to destroy the entire planet. We do want to negotiate nuclear ops. I would say at a minimum we dont need to add a nuclear competition. I think in terms of making ourselves less vulnerable we should do what we can but also with sanctions. And hes quite vulnerable. They paid and him enormous price. And second of all the plummeting up oil prices has really hurt that russian economy. It is onedimensional. I would on one hand show a russia respect. I never thought diplomacy was a favor. It is the tool of National Security<\/a>. I think this administration i often disagree with it. One era i thought was right to shore up ukraine. Just push back against mister putin. We are were going to look for some ways to interfere. You have a chapter on cyber tara. With the misinformation and the cyber terror that is coming out of the rope nations. It is a totally regulated space. Very few laws and sheriffs. Thats kind of what we have. We cant we dont have the equivalent the United States<\/a> and china said there would not be theft in the economic secrets. They are not the only players on the chessboard. Also with europe. The modern developed democracies lets start there. They are market oriented. Lets set the rules there and then we can tell the others that we want to have a economic relationship with us. Heres what can be. Its 5 30. I want to be nothing if it not prompt. I will introduce the question and answer session. Just know that there are north of 500 people participating so we will try to get as many questions as possible. You can hear from many people. As a reminder please kick on the race hand icon. We will take the first question. This is what we are looking forward to. What is going well if anything. That we should Pay Attention<\/a> to. May be double down on. Is a good question. I do have a default option which is towards the negative. One thing that is not present in this world is great power. It is worth pointing out than we have a cold war. That is not defining thats obviously a good thing. To talk about positive things in the area of health. But life spans are far longer today than they were just a generation ago all sorts of diseases had been largely eradicated. I think thats really important. Lets put aside the recession. With economic standards of living in the United States<\/a> and around the world its much higher than it was decades ago even though in recent years there had been some setbacks with democracy. They fought the world. Its far more open than it was. They have brought us some extraordinary advances and want to hopscotch around the world. Twenty to 25 years ago. Now it is one of the poster child of a successful country in many ways in the americas. They have come out of some very difficult times. Asia is still a very x successful region of the world. I think there is still a lot of things to be positive about. If i wanted to take a snap shot from a Historical Perspective<\/a> i would say not bad. What is truly worrisome is where we are compared to where we were ten years ago. And where we might be heading. Next question. We will take the next question from sim dash mike jim is iran. I am shouting again im down in florida. But i think you may be able to hear me all the way in new york. My question is do you see anything in the policies and programs to address at all the problems you describe in your book. In the terms of this president the policies are there to see. A record of when he took the job made it clear he did not buy into the value of a lot of his inheritance. Im quite quite critical of that. I do not think he have anything better to put into its place. Selectively i think he has done some good things. I think he was right to call out china. I mentioned yugoslavia. And despite some of the a lot of his policies on trade. There still has been the master 2. 0. The question though what you do with a second term. He has not articulated. I think he would be more in keeping with the traditional every president from harry truman to barack obama operated within the 30 or 40yard line. Republican and democrat alike. President biden very much wood. The problem because of the dynamics of the world. Because of many of the things that this administration has done. It will come at a time when the u. S. And chinese relationship is in worse shape. And u. S. Resources will be stress because of what were having to do at home. It will be a very difficult Foreign Policy<\/a> challenge for who ever is sitting in the oval office the next time around. We will take the next question from fred hochberg. We may want to go onto the next question. Richard, that was spectacular. Somewhat related you said today and very compelling how do we get the American Public<\/a> to follow one of the challenges we had had whether it is on trade or macons role in the world is getting the American Public<\/a> to see this in their interest. I believe americans have benefited enormously by our role in the world. But if you ask many voters they think this is an elite idea. They dont see how it is improving. I feel passionate about that. It seems very hard to make the case to the American Public<\/a>. It is a great question. At its essential that we do that. We had been stunningly will served in broad strokes. Imac and the say wheat didnt make errors we obviously did. They were clearly strategic errors. We are safer we are much more prosperous. The world has avoided major conflict. With the American Economic<\/a> improvement. I would also say immigration unbalance i think it is will served. I think president s and other senior officials need to explain things. And it can be a powerful classroom. If the president wants to use it. The other thing i try to do in this book is to make this argument that the word world matters. It would make a positive difference in all of our lives i would say that parents should push those who decide who a High School Curriculum<\/a> is. Why is there not the International Civic<\/a> focus. Same thing on college campuses. What would be wrong with requiring every graduate to take one course. In some of the basic or fundamental choices that come with foreignpolicy. I think it would be really doable. One other point it made me about it. Theres virtually nothing in history that is inevitable. Theres nothing about the future that we cant do something about it. From Climate Change<\/a> to the u. S. Relationship. I want people to get interested in an excited about the prospects and how they could have the country better off. Is not an act in fluttering and the p. Went to her own advantage. It sounds like a cliche. From that top down from leadership i think also the news media can make more of a news we will add a whole new dimension to what we do. We are going to continue to live up to our traditional mission. Foreign policy choices. This bang is consist tent with what i think is our much larger mission. Excellent, well worth the extra time. Next, thank you, fred. Well take the next question from sewell chan. Thank you so much, richard. Wanted to actually can you hear me . I hear you perfectly, congratulations on your book and thank you for your insightful remarks. Want today ask you but threats to freedom and in media ecosystem that, including those that come from rapid technological change. I work for an organization, the los angeles times, that is very much committed to expanding international understanding, but certainly true there are fewer correspondents for American News<\/a> organizations working overseas than there were ten or 15 areas ago. And i want to ask if you could address that. Thats part of the education issue. Its true. On the other hand theres also a space for quality journalism. We see that in the New York Times<\/a>, washington post, financial final, wall street journal, your newspaper, all continuing to cover the art world. I wish the Major Networks<\/a> would cover it. But cnn, npr. And our own magazine is doing better than ever. The numbers are way up. This tell mets theres a demand for and a space for quality journalism, quality analysis, and the opt on mist in me is hoping something as awful as this pandemic comes growing interest the world and going awareness the world matters. I didnt get up on the idea well support or demand greater coverage of the world, and if and when consumers show theyre interested it, trust me, the supply will be forthcoming. Thank you, sewell. Next . Well take the next question from neely gilbert. Hi, there, dr. Haass, its great to see you, congratulations on your new book and thanks to juju as well. Can you talk about the need to acknowledge and respond to issues global interconnectedness and enter depend pence. Bare areas are institutions from nation states to International Organizations<\/a> and institutions that are funded by nation states. They seem unable to deal if issues that no one specifically owns. So, i wonder if you can imagine that any new type of organization that could manage issues of the common how could you imagine these being governed and particularly if you have thought odd people, citizenled movements. Thank you. I think its a really important question. Coming back to what we said, which is unilateralism is not an answer, global challenges are real. He we need collective responses the problem with existing institutions is all institutions in any whether its a business, nonprofit, always a resistance to change, and thats obviously true where ipolitics come in the u. N. System. One path is to say how do we modernize, adapt these existing institutions . Another idea is to create new ones. And the whole idea of coalitions of the willing or coalitions of the willing and able is an important idea, and you bring together those entities that are willing and able and relevant. That way you dont have to worry houston 100 approval. Dont have to worry but vetoes. Maybe you get 10 or 15 countries who account for, say, 75 or 80 tv the Climate Change<\/a> problem. The principle emitters. If they can come up with ruled about their own behavior and how theyll deal with nonmember he 0 this group, that gets you some, and cyber space, sam thing. You can get United States<\/a>, the other dem creations, the he other democracies, and big in thes, come up with rules of the road there and shouldnt be. Think youre getting its this just how could you have a serious conversation but cyber space without the big Silicon Valley<\/a> companies. Now if we were going to talk but the pandemic, you obviously want companies, the gates found, bloomberg foundation, theyre big actors. When he was put in charge of afghan after 9 11 we had interagency meetings and then doctors without bored in other words the irc, invited to the meetings even though obviously theyre a nongovernment organization. They were on the ground and they were relevant. So i think we have to become really flexible and really creative. Flexible on who we include and creative about giving birth to new arrangements, because in some ways it will be easier to give birth to new approaches rather than try to change existing ones. This happened with aids when the World Health Organization<\/a> approved unable to adapt you had new organizations come into being that proved to bestrodely effective. We should be open to that sort offing in all sorts of realms, not Just International<\/a> public health. Thank you very much. Next question. Jeffrey rosen. Hell he, richard good, book good, presentation as always. Im going to im tempted to ask you what the next become is but ill let you preserve that as a secret. Resist that temptation, place. Assume a biden administration. How do you what your advice be to the president about how to in the first instance reposition the relationship with china, so that it is more consistent with what you think the right set of objectives should be without necessarily conceding whatever strong position the u. S. Has today in that relationship. And the second more broadly is, how do you rebuild trust with world organizations and with traditional allies in the reliability of americas commitments and words . Again, without having to concede too much to do so. Start with the latter. Your second question, how do you rebuild reliable, trust in this time. As a first step we have to reenter certain agreements or processes or if we didnt want to reenter them in their existing form we would say we be prepared to reenter them under these conditions. So we begin a serious dialogue, whether its dealing with climate, dealing with iran, dealing with migration, you name the challenges, the reform of the wto. So we would enter into either these organizations or reenter them as is or again use our entry as a lever for reform and that night work. With china i would say two things. But the way, to finish that one thought, it would take time. Again, reliability, people have come to see us differently and a new president would have to, through day in day out actions, words and so forth, demonstrate that the United States<\/a> was reliable and had become more predictable. In term of china i would say two things. I i would invest much more in a private conversation with china. When i was in government we often used the phrase, Strategic Dialogue<\/a> but almost no dialogue that was called strategic was. You had dozens of people in the room and every agency was represented and you couldnt have a serious conversation. I think we need serious high level conversations whether its the secretary of state, the National Security<\/a> adviser, the president , Vice President<\/a> , but sustained basis, and about what it is, about goals, means, you name it. We would have to first decide what our priorities were, where we were going to push china domestically and interregionally and globally and where we would back up. Serious, serious conversation about where we are going in this relationship and secondly, we wouldnt do it in our current context. The first and probably most important thing to do increase the odds that conversation might bear fruit would be to shore if our relationship with our traditional allies in the region and world. Cant beat up with the south koreans and japan to working with you on chinese. Same thing with europe if we want a common front on Technology Issues<\/a> with china if think one of the biggest strategic mistakes the administration was made in its first week but now come by leaving the Transpacific Partnership<\/a> which was close to coming into force at that time. That would have provided a regional Political Economic<\/a> basis for basically going to china and saying, hey, here are the standards. Here are the rules of the road. If you want to have more developed trade investment with us you have to raise your game rather than lower it. These are the rules you have to play by or we wont give you access. Those are the kind steps i would take. It will all take time. Not simply a deck career. These republicans were reinforced and accelerated by the administering but some could be discerned before hasnt. Some elements have a super tank ever quality. A little time and sustained effort to turn around bit i think the opportunities will be there. Excellent. Next question. The next question. Thank you, it was an excellent book and ive got my copy this morning, and ive gone through almost half of it. The conversation between you and juju helped pique my interest nome ump identified two as the defining problem, u. S. China relations and the Climate Change<\/a>. On Climate Change<\/a> you have pointed out clearly in the become that this could conceivably be the defining problem of the century. Given where we are today, particularly with the trump administration, if that were to come back to power, what are the chance you put on making progress on either of the two issue and the second is, given the amount of money we have spend on the pandemic, the covid19, what sort of abilities there for the world [inaudible] Climate Change<\/a> expenses are moving forward. Thank you. My last job in government i was the director of policy planning and i used to say i did policy machine, not policy predicting. I tent know what a second trump term would do whether it would be on extension of the first term, might there be some changes on climate because of events. Its conceivable. Im not going to say its obviously likely but its conceivable that some of the costs of Climate Change<\/a> became pronounced enough. With china you have had an odd combination of extremely waste the word generous rhetoric at one level, and some behaviors which are both some urgentous, some are not oare or overly generous. I dont know. I cant dissenior a pattern but i worry the overall thrust right now is negative and the pandemic is reinforcing it. It would takereal diplomatic intervention to improve the u. S. Chinese relationship not just from us but also from china. Im not sure i understand your second question but in terms of climate if we didnt change could the rest of the world do things . Sure but its limited. Middle powers, the europeans, some of the asians, can i think set certain standards, set certain principles but at the end of the day theyre not a substitute for great power involvement. Simply dont hey thest in terms of heck weight, military might if mat it comes to. Very hard to make the sort of progress we want to make without the major powers and the United States<\/a>. Think i dont much like phrases where were the indispensable hour. Sounds air got. But i would say were necessary. Were not sufficient but we are necessary. So its so important that the United States<\/a> fine a way back to playing a leading role in the world. Let me get you to elaborate on that. Thats an excellent question. The idea in your book you go swiftly through carbon offsets, carbon capture. What about reengage independent the paris accords. What kind of direct policy recommends would you make. We need to do much more at home. In term Regulatory Environment<\/a> with cars, closing coal plants and i think that the pandemic is a potential opportunity. Just think about it, juju. The government is now paying massive amounts to various businesses. Why dont we condition that . Why dont be basically say one of the conditions is for automobile companies, these kind cafe or mileage standards, or this kind of business you use these kinds of energy sources. So i think we have a tremendous lever in order to influence the Domestic Energy<\/a> picture. Think globally the real question is, how do you get others to do it and i think it was an interesting article in Foreign Affairs<\/a> by professor northhouse and basically said we should band together with other likeminded countries and essentially say were going to possibly introduce a tariff to the goods of those countries that dont meet sir compliment centerses to incentivize them to do it and i think thats an interesting thought. Still working on. I think its always going back to a previous question, never get that agreed to globally and i think paris has hims because everybody there is and even if the goal were met its not sufficient live ambitious. We need to think but work arounds, likemind relevant done trade put us on a trajectory to a more ambitious trajectory to deal with climate, not when thats imposed on us but one that we agree to. One other thing on climate, and one of our fellows works on this we have 0 accept the fact chat some Climate Change<\/a> already happened and more is going to happen. If we got our act together on climate tomorrow, a lot more Climate Change<\/a> is bake into the cake. We have insurance and where people are encouraged to live, what are the rules about where, say, elevator mechanicals go and so forth. Right now were on a trajectory where we if we havent prepared this country for climb change in the better than we prepared this done trip for a pandemic. One key word we need to think but and start using a lot more is resilience. A lot of these problems of going to come at us. Well never be 100 successful in stopping climate or pandemics or terror so how is it we make American Society<\/a> more robust and build in resilience so we can take hits from this global challenges and still pretty much continue. That is going to be a real challenge for the 21st 21st century. Richard, thats excellent. I now in keeping with the position of the council we end on time and im entirely skeptical you can answer request he in hesitant a moment so i wont ask toot unbut ill echo what you said at the top and hope that everyone is remaining safe and well during this pandemic. Richard, thank you, your wisdom and insight are always indispensable. Letey just echo what you said about being healthy and safe and careful out there. Also say that these are important issues, important times, and its great to have not just you involved but so many people interested and participating. So thank you all. Thank you all for that. Heres a look at Publishing Industry<\/a> nurse, forming president bill clinton and James Patterson<\/a> are team touching write a novel titled the president s daughter. The follows their 2018 row lease, the president is missing, that sold 3. 2 million copies. The number Public Library<\/a> turned 12 a a years skoal to mark the occasion the library releast it lists of 1 5 adult and Children Books<\/a> they say inspire a lifelong love of reading. Publishers weekly named Porter Square<\/a> books in cambridge, massachusetts, its book store of the year. The 16yearold store is coowned by deanna and david, who bought it in 201 and decided to sell half of it to several of their employ questions. Also in the is no, book sales were up close to 8 for the week ending may 16th. Adult an fiction sales are down. Many book festivals and conferences forced to cancel continue to off are attendees a virtual experience, bronx book festival guess online. Booktv will bring youll new programs and publishing news and watch our archived premiers at any time at back booktv. Org. Good evening, able wier harmon. Its a pleasure to welcome you to tonights live stream presentation by katy rophie. We thank you all for tuning in. These challenges times we are thrilled to be able to present virtual edition over our og","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia601903.us.archive.org\/18\/items\/CSPAN2_20200531_192000_Richard_Haass_The_World\/CSPAN2_20200531_192000_Richard_Haass_The_World.thumbs\/CSPAN2_20200531_192000_Richard_Haass_The_World_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240716T12:35:10+00:00"}