Obama's New World Order

Barack Obama's challenges as president will be manifold, but the fact of his election takes care of a big one. "The strategic threat to US power has come from rising anti-Americanism," Philip Stephens writes in the Financial Times. "The election of Barack Obama has disarmed it." But the world should not regard Obama's election as a handout. In fact, it challenges the world to play a more active role in world affairs than it has in the previous eight years. "Mr. Bush has been an excuse for inaction," Stephens writes. "That excuse is gone. Before too long, these governments, long too comfortable in their inaction, will have to consider what they have to offer the incoming president in return for America's security guarantees."