SOROS NOTE: They may not know it yet, but they will have a new leader arise very soon. Europe must have the military might to guarantee security to Israel. This means the Russian and American military machines must be LESS than Europe's or must be a PART of Europe's.
FOREIGN REPORT SEPTEMBER 17, 1998 ISSUE:2512
The next decade
IF THEY catch the ball that they have been thrown, and run with it, the next decade will belong to the Europeans - and not just the western ones. FOREIGN REPORT explains why.
Consider the United States. President Clinton wants to remain in office come what may. That may mean hearings over several weeks in the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives which may possibly
end with a vote to recommend impeachment, followed by a debate in the whole House. With the House controlled by Republicans, a vote recommending trial by the Senate could follow. This coulld take several more weeks. The president may hope that time will heal wounds and Americans will forgive him. On the other hand, the judiciary committee may hold back from recommending impeachment. In any event, Clinton's presidency is crippled. In the upcoming mid-term, congressional elections, Democrats will lose seats to Republicans in both the Senate and the House. The temptation to humiliate the president, by blocking any initiatives he may try to launch, will be strong (see next story).
Abroad, it was a taste of what is to come when the foreign minister of Sudan asked publicly why people should believe Clinton. The Israelis will see a weakened president, unable and unwilling to stop their expansionism on Arab lands to accommodate another wave of Russian Jewish immigrants; the Arabs will give up hope of help from Washington. Other world leaders may find it difficult to take Clinton seriously. The president's strongest card, the country's steady, non-inflatonary economic growth, may lose its strength as world markets shrink.
If the president resigns and is succeeded by Vice President Al Gore, the situation will barely improve as Gore is being investigated for allegedly using the White House as a base for fund-raising. Do not expect an "American decade".
Consider Asia, but only for a minute. The dream of an "Asian century" or an "Asian decade" has been exposed for what it is: a dream. Japan was supposed to be a world leader, but it remains almost immobile. .
This leaves Europe. True, it is in need of market reforms, a crackdown on welfare cheats and the introduction of flexible labour laws. But it is about to launch a powerful new currency, a rival to the dollar. Its economies are strong enough to survive hard times. It is expanding eastward to include fairly strong countries such as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. It has imagination to create the Airbus, now overtaking Boeing.
If ever there was a chance for Europe to take the initiative in the world, it is during the next decade. |
