Transcript
CARLOS PASCUAL: . . .Just simply a change in leadership, whether it's Republican or Democratic office, is simply not going to change the perceptions of American leadership. And I'm glad you raised that, and one of the questioners earlier raised the question about American leadership. I think for the next U.S. President, the biggest central challenge is going to be to restore American credibility and leadership in order to establish effective global and international partners, and that is going to be fundamental to securing American national security interest overseas. And it's not for the purpose of unilateral American action, but it's, in fact, to be able to have the leadership that is necessary to build the partnerships that are necessary to advance our interest; let me tell you why.
Whoever the next president is is going to face a series of crisis, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Middle East Peace Process, Pakistan, we're going to face a whole series of geopolitical challenges, rise of India and China, Russia being resurgent and more authoritarian, questions related to Turkey, for example, structural military issues that were raised earlier in the discussions. And then there are a series of wider, almost existential structural systemic questions that we face in the world that we live in today, issues of energy security, and climate change, non-proliferation, proliferation of nuclear weapons in particular, transnational terrorism, global poverty.
And there's no way that the United States alone can deal with these issues.
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