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2.9 MB

Extraction Summary

5
People
5
Organizations
4
Locations
2
Events
1
Relationships
4
Quotes

Document Information

Type: Investigative document / book excerpt (house oversight exhibit)
File Size: 2.9 MB
Summary

This document appears to be a page from a book or article included as an exhibit in a House Oversight investigation (marked HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_018213). It discusses Bill Clinton's foreign policy philosophy regarding US global dominance versus multilateral cooperation, referencing a 2003 Yale speech and Strobe Talbott's writings. The text also recounts a 2012 World Economic Forum panel where American officials refused to acknowledge economic projections showing China surpassing the US GDP.

People (5)

Name Role Context
Bill Clinton Former US President
Quoted regarding his 2003 Yale address and his foreign policy philosophy.
Strobe Talbott Former Deputy Secretary of State / Author
Quoted from his book 'The Great Experiment' discussing Clinton's views.
Charles Krauthammer Commentator
Mentioned as someone who disdained the institutions Clinton admired.
Unnamed Narrator ('I') Author/Panel Chair
The person writing the text who chaired a panel at the 2012 World Economic Forum.
Unnamed Panelists Senators, Congresswoman, Deputy National Security Advisor
Participants in the 2012 Davos panel who refused to acknowledge US decline.

Timeline (2 events)

2003
Bill Clinton delivers address on 'Global Challenges' at Yale University.
Yale University
2012
Panel on 'the future of American power' at the World Economic Forum.
Davos
Narrator Unnamed US Officials

Locations (4)

Relationships (1)

Bill Clinton Professional/Colleagues Strobe Talbott
Talbott writes about Clinton's beliefs in his book and served as deputy secretary of state.

Key Quotes (4)

"If you believe that maintaining power and control... is important to your country’s future, there’s nothing inconsistent in that [the US continuing to behaving unilaterally]."
Source
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Quote #1
"But if you believe that we should be trying to create a world with rules and partnerships... then you wouldn’t do that."
Source
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Quote #2
"Clinton believed [...] what we had in the wake of the cold war was a multilateral moment"
Source
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Quote #3
"To my shock, none could acknowledge publically this possibility."
Source
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Quote #4

Full Extracted Text

Complete text extracted from the document (2,392 characters)

when it would no longer be the number one power in the world. In his 2003 Yale University address on “Global Challenges,” he said:
If you believe that maintaining power and control and absolute freedom of movement and sovereignty is important to your country’s future, there’s nothing inconsistent in that [the US continuing to behaving unilaterally]. [The US is] the biggest, most powerful country in the world now. . . . But if you believe that we should be trying to create a world with rules and partnerships and habits of behavior that we would like to live in when we’re no longer the military political economic superpower in the world, then you wouldn’t do that. It just depends on what you believe.
Long before 2003, Clinton wanted to begin preparing Americans for this new world. “Clinton believed [...] what we had in the wake of the cold war was a multilateral moment – an opportunity to shape the world through our active leadership of the institutions Clinton admired and [Charles] Krauthammer disdained,” writes Strobe Talbott, former deputy secretary of state in his book The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation. “But Clinton kept that belief largely to himself while he was in office.... political instincts told him it would be inviting trouble to suggest that the sun would someday set on American preeminence.” Sadly, few Americans have heeded Clinton’s wisdom. Few dare to mention that America could well be number two. I discovered this when I chaired a panel on “the future of American power” at the 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos. After citing projections that America would have the second largest economy in just a few years, I asked the American panelists – two senators, a congresswoman and a former deputy national security advisor – whether Americans are ready to become number two. To my shock, none could acknowledge publically this possibility.
America may well become number two faster than anyone has anticipated. According to the most recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections, China will have larger share of global GDP than the United States by 2017. In 1980, in PPP terms, the US share of the global economy was 25 percent, while China’s was 2.2 percent. By 2017, the US share will decline to 17.9 percent, and China’s will rise to 18.3 percent. Even if
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_018213

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