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in his new book "The Opportunity," Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and director of policy planning at the State Department until June 2003, is tough on former boss George W. Bush: "The direct costs to the United States [of the war in Iraq]...," he writes, "were and are simply too high, given what was at stake." Haass spoke with Malcolm Beith:
Can you explain "integration"?
The idea is to get the other leading countries in the world to embrace a set of principles and rules against terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons and genocide--but in favor of open trade. What worries me is that we may be squandering this opportunity. I worry that our current policies are alienating much of the world, and we are also eroding the economic base of American power.
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You say "American vulnerability is real." More real than ever?
The danger of being obliterated was greater during the cold war. But U.S. vulnerability across the board has actually increased because of globalization. U.S. borders are now essentially porous. They can be crossed by terrorists, by viruses--computer or physical--by drugs, by airplanes that carry bombs rather than tourists.
You write that the U.S. doesn't need the world's permission to act, but that it does need the world's support to succeed.
That's one of the central messages of this book. U.S. leadership requires followership. As strong as we are, we simply lack the resources to do it all. You need virtually all the countries in the world cooperating, or the terrorists, the drug merchants, or others, will find the soft spots and exploit them to everyone's disadvantage.
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