Henry Kissinger: Obama can create a "New World Order"

Henry Kissinger appeared on yesterday's Morning Call with Mark Haines on CNBC and was asked "What do you think the most important thing is for Barack Obama?" The response:

"....His task will be to develop an overall strategy for America in this period, when really a "New World Order" can be created . It's a great opportunity. It isn't such a crisis."

UPDATE: They aren't even hiding it anymore. Kissinger offers an editorial called "The chance for a new world order" (link):

...The financial collapse exposed the mirage. It made evident the absence of global institutions to cushion the shock and to reverse the trend. Inevitably, when the affected publics turned to their national political institutions, these were driven principally by domestic politics, not considerations of world order...

...In the end, the political and economic systems can be harmonized in only one of two ways: by creating an international political regulatory system with the same reach as that of the economic world; or by shrinking the economic units to a size manageable by existing political structures, which is likely to lead to a new mercantilism, perhaps of regional units.

A new Bretton Woods-kind of global agreement is by far the preferable outcome...

...The extraordinary impact of the president-elect on the imagination of humanity is an important element in shaping a new world order. But it defines an opportunity, not a policy.

The ultimate challenge is to shape the common concern of most countries and all major ones regarding the economic crisis, together with a common fear of jihadist terrorism, into a common strategy reinforced by the realization that the new issues like proliferation, energy and climate change permit no national or regional solution...

...The Sino-American relationship needs to be taken to a new level...

...This generation of leaders has the opportunity to shape trans-Pacific relations into a design for a common destiny, much as was done with trans-Atlantic relations in the immediate postwar period - except that the challenges now are more political and economic than military...

Tue, 01/06/2009 - 11:17 · · Importance: 4