Re: Should the West just leave Africa alone?

Description: What the EU has done with Eastern European countries far exceeds what the US has done with Latin America.

Transcript: I mean I’m struck by the difference between the European Union and the U.S.’ efforts at economic development. So the European Union, by having a systematic process, was able to assimilate dozens of countries that were communist societies, and in the course of a relatively small number of years, really work with them to create a market system and a good society in Poland, in Latvia, in Lithuania, in you know, you name it. And yet the U.S., this wonderful economic power, was not . . . has not really been able to do anything remotely as effective with Latin America, or Africa, or some of the continents that we’ve had an interest in. And so I think we’ve brought some of this on ourselves; and I think . . . I can’t quite understand why the U.S. has had such a limited and narrow view of its role in assisting other nations and enhancing their societies, but I think we’re paying the price for that. The U.S. has actually been the extraordinary driver of many of these changes in the global economic system, certainly.

Recorded on: 6/11/07