U.S. Policy toward Ascending Asia
Stephen Bosworth, Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts Unive
rsity, laid out some key issues for the next president regarding U.S. policy toward Asia in a speech before the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Monday evening.
Bosworth said the 2008 presidential campaign has dealt “more with foreign policy than most presidential elections have” during his lifetime. He said he hopes that the candidates will commit “to a process of education” for themselves and voters on foreign policy.
• He contended Asia presents “some good choices” for the next few U.S. administrations as far as policy. But Bosworth, a former ambassador to both the Philippines and South Korea, warned against viewing the challenges of an ascendant Asia as a threat. “We are much better off if we try to treat these challenges coming from these rising powers as opportunities,” he said.
• He said the decline of the U.S. public education system and the retirement of workers in the baby boomer generation threaten U.S. competitiveness with Asia. Bosworth also said the deterioration of the U.S. physical infrastructure has placed the United States at a significant disadvantage. He noted Asian governments “are always investing in physical and human infrastructure in a way that we have not been doing in some time.”
• Bosworth recommended that the United States be more involved in the building of new multilateral institutions with Asia. “This is going be one of the key challenges the next U.S. administration is going to have to face. Do we want to be a part of this Asian institutional architecture,” asked Bosworth, or should the United States “stand aside” and let Asia develop its institutions “on their own?”
