Bill Clinton: “Well, I think the short answer to your question is, yes, the world needs a leader, but not in the sense of one country…”

“Well, I think the short answer to your question is, yes, the world needs a leader, but not in the sense of one country telling everyone else what to do. That is--let's take something that didn't happen in Asia. If you look at the problem, the civil war in Bosnia, the terrible problem in Bosnia, we had the military resources to work with NATO our military allies in Europe, to move in and stop the war. Because we were the largest party to NATO, if we hadn't been willing to take the initiative, it wouldn't have happened. On the other hand, we couldn't have done it alone. We had to have people work with us. I'll give you another example. We want to do everything we can to end the stalemate between North and South Korea. But if China had not been willing to work with us, I don't think we could have started these four-party talks again or we would be very effective in urging North Korea and South Korea to talk directly. But because we can work with China, we can have more influence. Here, I come to China, and I say, we want to be your friends; we share the security interest, and we're working together with India and Pakistan on the nuclear tests; we're working to stop the transfer of dangerous weapons; we're working to cooperate in environmental projects; and we know we have differences, and I want to tell you why I believe in religious freedom or political freedom. If you think about it, that's a leadership issue for the United States. But the success of the leadership depends upon having a partnership with China. So it's a different sort of world leadership than in the past where it's just a question of who has the biggest army gets to send a list of instructions to another country, and you think it will be done. That's not the way the world works now. You have to have--sometimes you have to stand strong for what you believe in, in terms of sending the soldiers into Bosnia or imposing economic sanctions on South Africa, as both China and the U.S. did in the time of apartheid. But most days you get more done by finding a way to engage countries and work with them and persuade them that you're doing the right thing. It's important to have allies in the world we live in, to be more cooperative; even from a leader's point of view, you have to have allies and people that will work with you.”