'A Really Full IN Box'

The developing world is catching up to the West, and some analysts have forecast the resultant decline of American influence in the world. Do you agree?
Yes, I think that's right. American dominance has been very short-lived. What we're going to see is that America is still going to be the most important and biggest single player in the system. But there's a difference between having strength and being able to shape the nature of the system. The United States was sole remaining superpower after 1991--that hasn't lasted more than a decade and half. And it wasn't just Iraq that caused that. The deeper trend of world politics, the diffusion of power--all those things are a symptom of a very different political environment in the 21st century. So the U.S. can't exercise dominance. It can exercise leadership, but that leadership has to be based on some other international consensus. It's not now so obvious what that consensus would be. The United States, Europe, even China--they're not sure where they're going. The world is characterized by a great lack of strategic thinking on everyone's part. We have to fashion a consensus, and America can lead that consensus--it's not automatic that they will lead it, but it is certainly capable of leading it.

Any final thoughts?
The Francis Fukuyama idea about the end of history: it's clear now that that's not the case, and that liberal democracy is not necessarily a fact of life, it's not beyond challenge. It's not just Al Qaeda and the terrorists: the Russians, the Chinese and many African states are prepared to say, "We will not sign up to this free-trade liberal capitalist system. We will pursue prosperity through a more autocratic route." Fukuyama's point was that we fought for [a liberal democratic order] for 50 years during the cold war, we've won, and we've [made liberal democracy] an international fact of life. Well, it isn't. It's still got to be fought for.

Clarke and other foreign-policy leaders are converging on May 1 and 2 at The Global Leadership Forum, a conference hosted by NEWSWEEK along with the Royal United Services Institute and Princeton's Project on National Security. The GLF will examine the most pressing global challenges against the backdrop of the coming US elections. Visit Princeton's GLF blog to read the thoughts of U.S. and European thinkers and officials on the most pressing issues of our day: climate change, global finance, the dynamics of the Middle East, weapons proliferation, global health and transatlantic relations.

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