[US President Barack] Obama is probably the first American president who knows that American power is actually not unlimited. Obama tacitly recognizes the new world, while [former president] George W. Bush was in denial of it. The presidency is getting tougher, there will be big conflicts in US politics and it could turn nasty — over healthcare, for example.
As a consequence, with China rising, the political right could be reborn in a new form post-Obama and there will be a particularly toxic version of it. I would not be surprised if there were an anti-China element to it.
America is going to find itself progressively displaced by the rise of China — disorientated, dislocated, and that is going to be a very painful experience for the US. I speak as someone who’s watched [over] the last 50 years how Britain handled this as a former imperial power.
Part I of this interview ran on Sunday, Oct. 4
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