US economy to present challenges for new government
Updated
Iraq and Afghanistan are urgent issues for the Obama Presidency but there is the US economy, which presents huge challenges for the new administration.
Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speaker: James Wolfensohn, Former World Bank chief; Michael Fullilove, from the Lowy Institute at the Brookings Institution in Washington
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LINDA MOTTRAM: In a matter of days the G20 leaders will meet hosted by George W. Bush to shape a global response to the world's financial and economic crises. Should Barack Obama also be at the G20 meeting? One long-term insider, former World Bank chief James Wolfensohn, has told SBS Television he should be.
JAMES WOLFENSOHN: I think it is very, very important despite the fact that it is a George Bush meeting, that he assert himself and I don't think any of the other foreign leaders are going to look to the guidance of President Bush at this time; they're going to be looking at Barack Obama. I think half of them are coming here, I know the truth is that half of them are coming here in the expectation that Obama will be invited. If he's not invited, my own judgment is that you're not going to get much out of these meetings because they're not going to expect that President Bush is going to be able to deliver.
LINDA MOTTRAM: James Wolfensohn speaks with great authority, indicating this is a live issue, though it's complex and a sensitive and a political fix will be needed if it's to work. But that it's under discussion at all indicates the obvious: that the fate of the world's financial system and spreading economic recession is a top priority for the new US leader. Equally though, Barack Obama has pressing and dangerous foreign policies. Getting out of Iraq is one; building a deeper effort in Afghanistan is another. Then there's Pakistan, Iran, China, Russia - the list is long. So what will be Barack Obama's approach? Global issues expert Michael Fullilove is from the Lowy Institute in Sydney and is currently at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
MICHAEL FULLILOVE: The notable effort of his writing in his speeches on foreign policy - he plays down the themes of freedom and the roles that good and evil play in the affairs of mankind, that Bush and McCain talked about a lot. He's much more pragmatic. He talks about reasonableness and balance. So he's looking for pragmatic solutions. He's further towards the multilateral end of the spectrum than the Bush Administration, certainly than the first term of the Bush Administration, where they were highly muscular and unilateral in the way they approached the world. That's not to say that the United States under his leadership will become a kind of a greater Scandinavia. It will still remain the only super power, the only country able to project military power anywhere on Earth, but I think the way that it seeks to project its influence will be notably different than what we've seen in the last eight years.
LINDA MOTTRAM: Michael Fullilove says Barack Obama's view is that that with great power comes great responsibility, so with China there will be a mixed approach favouring engagement and there's an opportunity for Australia, Michael Fullilove says, from Barack Obama's childhood links with Indonesia.
MICHAEL FULLILOVE: This presents a real opportunity for Australia, given that Australian governments of both colours have fruitlessly attempted over many years to persuade Washington to give Indonesia its proper level of attention. To have somebody who's described Indonesia as a magical place and has described in very rich terms and very textured terms the different elements of Indonesian society, I think to have somebody who understands our near neighbour to the north to that extent, I think is a real opportunity for us.
