What does Clinton's country-hopping add up to?

What does Clinton's country-hopping add up to?

THE ECONOMIST
The world's most dangerous place
In the 1960s, income per person in the subcontinent was similar toSouth-East Asia's; it then fell far behind. But India has started to pullitself out of its state-planned hole. Previously blessed with more democracythan good government, it has recently started to accept the enriching valueof privatisation, competition and freer trade....
Pakistan, by contrast, is falling apart. Venal politicians have sucked thecountry hollow, leaving the void to be filled by Islamic extremists, ormilitary coup-makers, with troubling signs of alliances between the two....Stung, not just by Pakistan's Kargil incursion, but also by the hijacking inDecember of an Indian Airlines jet by Islamic extremists from organisationssupported by the Pakistani regime, India is doing all it can to isolate andignore Pakistan. That is the second of the government's two big mistakes.
The first was the detonation of five nuclear bombs in May 1998. India'sHindu-nationalist-led government trumpets its nuclear prowess as a source ofHindu and national pride. Since economic revival will take a lot more sweat,tears and time, the bomb tests were also meant to be a short cut to greaterworld prominence. Yet India refuses to count the cost of measuring its worthin military plutonium. Rather than industrial silicon....
-- Excerpted from an editorial in `The Economist', March 18HERALD TRIBUNE
Nations across the globe remain sceptical
With little to do at home. Mr Clinton is moving from hot spot to hot spot,arguing that all involve areas in America's strategic interest. The problemis that Mr Clinton envisions himself as an umpire while the rest of theworld sees Washington as a player with its own agenda...
And so for all the happy talk, the Indians had no intention of signing on toMr Clinton's nonproliferation agenda. After all, they said, the US Senaterejected the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty last year. So why, they asked,should they?
-- Excerpted from `The International Herald Tribune', March 27

FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Two cheers for Clinton's legacy
The foreign policy of the Clinton administration has been well suited to anera when there is little to gain in foreign policy and much to lose. TheAmerican people recognize this and have made it clear they want neitherisolationism nor costly international crusades. Bill Clinton is nothing ifnot sensitive to the vox populi, so he has given his fellow citizens theforeign policy they wanted something they have clearly recognized andappreciated. Pundits may carp and Republicans may complain, but the Americanpeople judge his stewardship of foreign policy to be ``outstanding'',according to polls conducted by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.That is why his successor is likely to follow in his footsteps, no matterwhat is promised between now and January 2001, and no matter which partywins.ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU-- Excerpted from `Foreign Affairs', March/April 2000