Published in Le Journal du Centre
(France) on 21 January 2009
by Xavier Panon 
“>[link to original]
Translated from French by Floriane Ballige. Edited by Louis Standish.
Posted on January 28, 2009.
style=”max-width: 500px ; height: auto ;”>The former leader of the French Foreign Office, Hubert Védrine, published two books in 2008: ” Continuer l’Histoire” (Continue History – Fayard Publisher) and “Atlas du Monde Global” (Atlas Of The Global World – Armand Colin Publisher).
Could Barack Obama become a master of the world?
He can help America get its prestige back, but he won’t be able to re-establish a leadership that would be identical to the previous one. Although America is the first power of the world, it’s not an unlimited one. So, Obama a master of the world? No. The world has no master.
Do you feel any special determination in his personality?
He was basically elected to stop a crisis, but not to elaborate a different foreign policy. The Americans think that Bush had failed, but they really don’t know why. They keep thinking that the United States has a special role to play in the world. Bush’s own mistakes had led to a fiasco; the American and Occidental peoples don’t work in a multipolar world any more.
Should he be careful of Europe and France?
I don’t know why it would be so; Europe is neither a problem nor a solution to America’s difficulties. This will mostly depend upon Obama’s answers, for instance, on the Afghanistan or NATO discussions. It’s up to us to decide what we want it or not!
Will he be a perfectionist?
He will introduce elements of protection in the « cocktail ». It will all be a matter of proportions…
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