NEWSWEEK

Cabinet Makers: Advice to the incoming administration—from players past

National Security Adviser | Persuasion, Not Compulsion

By Sandy Berger

November 5, 2008

I'll always remember the night in January 1995 when, as usual, we were working late in the White House and Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin came into my office. Bob was not in a mood for small talk. Mexico—its economy in meltdown—had 48 hours to live, and there was no public or congressional support for a rescue loan. Nonetheless, President Clinton quickly approved it, and it prevented a massive hemorrhage south of our border.

Today, as Barack Obama prepares to enter the Oval Office, the entire global financial system faces a far more serious meltdown. It poses an early test of the new president—not only of where he will lead the international community but, just as importantly, how. The stakes are huge. When what happens in the Tokyo market overnight affects our markets in the morning, when falling growth in China immediately drives down commodity prices in Brazil, every nation, however rich or poor, is vulnerable.

The world knows that the economic crisis can't be solved without America. They will respect a president who leads as Obama has promised to lead—by persuasion, not compulsion. They will respond to a president who recognizes the need for new global arrangements that give new global players a greater say. If President Obama is the principal architect of this new, more-inclusive system, he will be recognized as its leader, just as his predecessors FDR, Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman were the leaders of the post-World War II era.

The financial crisis presents dangers, but it also presents opportunity for a new president who understands the forces of change in the world and seeks to marshal them. President Obama's ability to advance a broader agenda, from energy to nonproliferation, will be empowered if he succeeds in meeting this challenge. It will be imperiled if he fails.

— Sandy Berger was national-security adviser under President Bill Clinton

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