“ A colleague of mine recently returned from a trip to Vietnam, where he observed teaming fabrication plants built by companies like Intel, employing thousands of young Vietnamese anxious to enter the world middle class. “We may not have won the war”, he told me, “but we sure won the peace.” Imagine if a small fraction of what we have put into making war on the Iraqis, had gone into helping American companies build computer factories that could employ these restless young men in Egypt, Jordan or Syria? As the Chinese and others are investing in soft power around the world, should we be trapped by our dependence on hard power?
February 19, 2008
