The Next American Century

How the US Can Thrive As Other Powers Rise

January 18, 2008, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

About This Event

The rise of other global powers is most often posed as a sorry tale, full of threats to America's primacy, prosperity, and way of life. The potential loss of our #1 status implies a blow to our safety, economy, and prestige.

But this is a rare moment in history: none of the world's big powers are our adversaries. In their new book, The Next American Century, Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen show that the "pivotal powers" - China, Europe, India, Japan, and Russia - seek greater influence, but each has an enormous stake in the world economy and a keen desire to thwart common threats. India is a key ally in the struggle against terrorism. China's help is essential to containing pandemic disease. Russia is leading an effort to keep nuclear devices out of terrorists' hands. Japan and Europe are critical partners in tackling climate change. None of these countries is a direct military or ideological challenger. In fact, their gains largely help, rather than hurt, America's continuing prosperity, growth, and to some extent, even its values. Will we have conflicts with these powers? Definitely. Some will be serious. But, by and large, they want what we want: a stable world and better lives for their citizens. We live in an era of opportunity, not of loss.

To take advantage of this moment, the United States must get its own house in order, making sure that American children can compete, American workers can adjust, America's military remains cutting-edge, and American diplomacy entices rather than alienates. While America must be prepared for the possibility that a hostile superpower may one day emerge, it has to be careful not to turn a distant, uncertain threat into an immediate one. Washington should welcome the pivotal powers into a vigorous international order to share the burden of solving pressing global problems of peace, climate, health, and growth. The avenue to a truly safer and more prosperous world runs through the pivotal powers. With them, we can build a world where Americans will thrive, today and tomorrow.

Featuring the two authors of The Next American Century:

Nina Hachigian, Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress, Visiting Scholar of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University
Mona Sutphen, Managing Director at Stonebridge International LLC

Moderated by:

David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent, New York Times

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Resources

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Biographies

Nina Hachigian is a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress and a Visiting Scholar of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Earlier, she was the Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Policy and a Senior Political Scientist at RAND. From 1998 to 1999, she was on the staff of the National Security Council. She lives in Los Angeles.

Mona Sutphen is a Managing Director at Stonebridge International LLC, a Washington-based international business strategy firm. A former diplomat, she served in Bangkok and Sarajevo. Later, she served as Special Assistant to U.S. National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger and as an advisor to United Nations Ambassador Bill Richardson. She lives in New York.

David E. Sanger is Chief Washington Correspondent for The New York Times and is one of the newspaper's senior writers. In a 25-year career at the paper, he has reported from New York, Tokyo and Washington, covering a variety of issues surrounding foreign policy, globalization, nuclear proliferation, Asian affairs and, since 2001, the arc of the Bush presidency.

Twice he has been a member of Times reporting teams that won the Pulitzer Prize. Before covering the White House, Mr. Sanger specialized in the confluence of economic and foreign policy, and wrote extensively on how issues of national wealth and competitiveness have come to redefine the relationships between the United States and its major allies. He was correspondent and then bureau chief in Tokyo for six years.

In 2007, the New York Times received the DuPont Award from the Columbia Journalism School for "Nuclear Jihad: Can Terrorists Get the Bomb?" a documentary featuring Mr. Sanger and his colleague William J. Broad. In 2004, Mr. Sanger was the co-recipient of the Weintal Prize for diplomatic reporting for his coverage of the Iraq and Korea crises. He also won the Aldo Beckman prize for coverage of the presidency. In both 2003 and 2007 he was awarded the Merriman Smith Memorial Award for coverage of national security strategy. He also shared the American Society of Newspaper Editor's top award for deadline writing in 2004, for team coverage of the Columbia disaster.