patten71_ImageCatcher News Service_Getty Images_obama abe

Two Lessons for the Next US President

Oct 26, 2016 Chris Patten

The next US president will have to address citizens' economic grievances without sacrificing the openness and diversity that has long fueled America's success. But domestic concerns cannot overwhelm foreign-policy imperatives like bringing North Korea to heel.

NAGASAKI – Looking out of my window across the harbor of the remarkable city of Nagasaki, Japan, two thoughts of considerable relevance to the next American president come to mind.

Nagasaki has endured the worst of humanity. In August 1945, a plutonium bomb decimated the city, causing massive physical damage and untold human suffering. Since then, however, the city has exemplified the best of human achievement, rising from the rubble thanks to the spirit and enterprise of Japanese men and women, who trade the things that they build – for example, at the Mitsubishi shipyards – with the rest of the world.

But Nagasaki – and Japan, more broadly – has not always been open to the world, reaching across the ocean to connect with other countries, from near neighbors like China to faraway allies like the United States. For centuries, Japanese minds, and Japanese borders, were distinctly closed.

We hope you're enjoying Project Syndicate.

To continue reading, subscribe now.

Already have an account? Log in

Support High-Quality Commentary

US President-elect Joe Biden may have promised a “return to normalcy,” but the truth is that there is no going back. The world is changing in fundamental ways, and the actions the world takes in the next few years will be critical to lay the groundwork for a sustainable, secure, and prosperous future.

For more than 25 years, Project Syndicate has been guided by a simple credo: All people deserve access to a broad range of views by the world’s foremost leaders and thinkers on the issues, events, and forces shaping their lives. At a time of unprecedented uncertainty, that mission is more important than ever – and we remain committed to fulfilling it.

But there is no doubt that we, like so many other media organizations nowadays, are under growing strain. If you are in a position to support us, please subscribe now.

As a subscriber, you will enjoy unlimited access to our On Point suite of long reads and book reviews, Say More contributor interviews, The Year Ahead magazine, the full PS archive, and much more. You will also directly support our mission of delivering the highest-quality commentary on the world's most pressing issues to as wide an audience as possible.

By helping us to build a truly open world of ideas, every PS subscriber makes a real difference. Thank you.

Subscribe Now

The Coming Confrontation with North Korea
Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images
Free to read

The Coming Confrontation with North Korea

Richard Haass is all but certain that the next US president will face a fateful decision regarding North Korea.

23

new comment has been posted. new comments have been posted.

0 Comments on this paragraph, 5 in all 5 Comments on this article

John Doyle Nov 2, 2016

The Japanese did the right thing to stamp out Catholic doctrine there at the time. Pity they then got the taste for colonial expansion, only killed off by Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Being open to the world can be a fraught exercise, and Japan should know it all too well. But they are now willing to exchange their representative government for the imminent corporatising world of the "Free Trade" treaties. Not good.
Fortunately, and the USA is powerless to reverse this, the current industrial dynasty is now, after 250 years on the slide, ordained to collapse. So any corporate victory will be phyrric. Whomever is president will not make a difference to this but they may make mischief as the economies crash. Deflation today, recession tomorrow and collapse are all ordained to occur on our finite planet. Have fun!!!
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
j. von Hettlingen Oct 28, 2016

Chris Patten's "two lessons" for the next US presdient are - to ditch isolationism and to learn from the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki. He says Trump's popularity among his supporters is a testament of "closed minds and closed borders" which is prevalent in the US and some parts of Europe. He hopes that "the more moderate" Hillary Clinton will defeat "the recklessly isolationist Donald Trump." But he fears that "the backlash against openness that has fueled Trump’s rise will not dissipate on its own."
Trump seems to ignore what inspired his German - not Swedish - grandfather to come to America. Frederick Trump must have been attracted by its essence of openness - especially an openness to a stranger, a sense of possibility, an embrace of future, and a readiness for adventure that no other country could offer. America's success has also its "diversity" to thank for - a "key strength" of the country. It provided "a haven for people from all over the world, where all people are subject to the same rules and law," embracing the motto: E Pluribus Unum (one out of many).
Unfortunately Trump's supporters aren't in the mood to celebrate America's success. They see it as sour grapes, as they can't reach it. Hillary Clinton will be well-advised "to address some of the real grievances that spurred the backlash against economic openness" and globalisation, which had lifted millions in the developing world out of poverty and created social and economic inequalities at home. Patten insists on an infrastructure programme, which would create "huge numbers of productive jobs and distributed wealth." This project "would be far easier to achieve if her Democratic Party also won the Senate." The US should rebuild its reputation as the “land of opportunity” - a quintessence of "US soft power in the past."
The second task for the new president would be to deal with "the overwhelming threat posed by nuclear weapons" based on the lesson learnt from Nagasaki, where Patten pens his commentary. He fears North Korea's "volatile regime, which is led by "the world’s most powerful juvenile delinquent," Kim Jong-un. While building a nuclear arsenal, it is "also working to develop long-range delivery capacity." Recent tests - last month's was the most powerful ever - show just "how close the Hermit Kingdom is to achieving its goals."
Kim has boasted that his long-range missiles could hit targets on American soil. Patten chides Obama for not halting Kim's nuclear activities and urges Hillary Clinton, potentially the next president, to take action. He advises against "unilateral action" and demands Washington "to persuade China to intervene to bring Kim’s regime to heel," which would require "some deft diplomacy," a skill that Trump lacks.
The author says the US has the obligation to protect its allies - Japan and South Korea - from Kim's nuclear threat. Instead of raising China's hackles by providing South Korea with the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), Washington should turn a blind eye to China's "illegal pursuit of territorial claims" in the East and South China Seas. while pleading with Beijing to consider a "more direct intervention in North Korea."
However, it's unclear whether the parties in these territorial disputes would agree on making concessions, just for the sake of "defusing North Korea's nuclear ambitions." Nationalism is on the rise across Asia. It would be a tough sale for political leaders to convince their citizens that a nuclear-free environment "would be worth the sacrifice" of waiving their claims.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
CALEB DEXTER Oct 27, 2016

*Addendum to the above*
This is NOT to excuse the METHOD that the Japanese authorities used to "stamp out the growth of Christianity in Japan" -- obviously, execution is NEVER an acceptable punishment for the non-crime of religious conviction. But the goal of the Japanese authorities at the time -- to allow Japan to forge a national identity as it exited the Warring States period without interference from outside influences -- was, I contend, the right one at the time, and laid the foundation for Japan's later success. It is, however, a true tragedy that the Japanese authorities at the time pursued that goal in such a grotesque, inhumane, and ultimately unnecesary way.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
CALEB DEXTER Oct 27, 2016

Chris Patten is as much an expert on Japan as Chris Pratt is on 3rd century Uighur animal husbandry. Japan is such a cohesive, functional country that can sustain a high standard of living for its people who "trade the things that they build" precisely because the country's leaders had the foresight to "stamp out the growth of Christianity in Japan" back in the sixteenth century. As a counter-example of what Japan could have become, look no further than the Philippines, which was colonized by the Spanish at about the same time that the Portuguese were trying to colonize,through their Jesuit missionaries, the Japanese. Today, the Philippines had a per-capital GDP less than a quarter as large as Japan's. Mr. Patten doesn't realize (or willfully ignores) that a country like Japan has one, and ONLY one, thing going for it: its people. It has no oil reserves; it has no fruitful agricultural land; it has no potash deposits. It has nothing except for the intellect and industriousness of its people, which Japan's rulers have been able to parlay into substantial wealth for its citizens and clout on the world stage. "[P]lurality and openness" can, indeed, be assets to a nation, but not always, and certainly not in the case of Japan. Mr. Patten would be wise to hunt elsewhere for an appropriate metaphor for his unsolicited words of advice to the next U.S. president.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Michael Public Oct 27, 2016

Hard to follow the thread here. What I am understanding is:

1. China should invade North Korea to help America out.
2. Clinton should detonate small nuclear bombs on areas supportive of Trump to promote a new culture of openness.

Of course I could be reading this wrong.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.

https://prosyn.org/wvHHgKD

Cookies and Privacy

Two Lessons for the Next US President

To continue reading, subscribe now.

Support High-Quality Commentary

The Coming Confrontation with North Korea

New Comment

Email this piece to a friend

Contact us

Log in/Register

Cookies and Privacy

Two Lessons for the Next US President

To continue reading, subscribe now.

Support High-Quality Commentary

Edit Newsletter Preferences

Set up Notification