Parag Khanna
To understand the Russia that you can “see from your backyard” (as Tina Fey memorably put it), learn Chinese. The Russian Far East that is America’s neighbor might in the coming decades have a larger Chinese than Russian population as they populate and farm in the thawing Siberian countryside.
Senior research fellow in the American Strategy Program and director of the Global Governance Initiative at the New America Foundation, and author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (New York: Random House, 2008)
William Easterly
Moscow is on the opposite side of Russia, 4,365 miles away from Anchorage, Alaska. Sarah Palin would have stronger foreign-policy credentials if she were the governor of Ryazan province.
In unbelievably sharp contrast to Alaska, most oil-rich states around
the world are very corrupt and often commit other ethics violations.
Professor of economics at New York University and author of The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (New York: Penguin Press, 2006)
Col. Andrew J. Bacevich (Ret.)
In her debate with Sen. Joe Biden, Governor Palin described her “worldview” this way: “America is a nation of exceptionalism. And we are to be that shining city on a hill. ... [W]e represent a perfect ideal.” She needs to know that this self-image is not peculiar to Americans. The people of France and Russia, China and Iran, and any number of other nations are no less persuaded that their country and their values stand out as distinctive and special.
Professor of international relations at Boston University and author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2008)
Steven Pinker
In many dangerous situations, the goal of a leader should not be to win, but to figure out how to get out of the game. During the Cuban missile crisis, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, drawing on their knowledge and memories of the two world wars, explicitly realized this. Each one “blinked,” making concessions that saved the world.
Harvard College professor of psychology at Harvard University and author of The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature (New York: Viking, 2007)
Susan Glasser
Not all global bad guys are anti-American. Far beyond Iran and North Korea, there are plenty of dictators, thugs, and generally authoritarian leaders (think Egypt, Azerbaijan, or Saudi Arabia for that matter) who pursue broadly pro-U.S. policies.
Executive editor of FOREIGN POLICY and coauthor of Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005)
Christopher Hitchens
It is high time to ask her directly, in respect of the world that is also known as the Earth, exactly how old she thinks it is. Much depends on her answer.
Public intellectual and author of God Is Not Great (New York: Twelve, 2007)
Peter Singer
Every day, according to UNICEF, there are 27,000 moms who, instead of driving their kids to play soccer, watch their children die from preventable diseases such as measles, malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia—diseases that don’t exist in developed countries, or if they do, are easily cured and almost never fatal. We could help these mothers and their children. Yet—few Americans know this, and so Palin might not either—in proportion to its gross national income, the United States gives less foreign aid than every other OECD country except Greece.
Ira W. DeCamp professor of bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University
Steven A. Cook
The Nile flows south to north.
There is a broad spectrum of Islamist movements: from those who believe they are engaged in a cosmic struggle with the West, to those who use violence for nationalist political goals, to those who seek constitutionalist, nonviolent means of transforming their societies.
Senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
Linda Bilmes
I would advise Governor Palin—and other politicians—to understand orders of magnitude.
A simple way to imagine it:
If you stack $1 million in thousand-dollar bills, it will be 4 inches high.
One billion in thousand-dollar bills equals 330 feet—a little higher than the Capitol dome.
One trillion is 65 miles high. The U.S. national debt is in the trillions.
Lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and coauthor of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict (New York: W.W. Norton, 2008)
