One third of our new jobs since 1993 has come from expanding trade with other countries. And the President has launched a pointed discussion about how to reshape the global financial architecture to address the new challenges of the fast moving and rapidly changing marketplace. Over the past ten years, with America's strong support, nations from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to the Americas to Africa have chosen democracy over authoritarianism, market economies over command economies. Now, many of those countries are at a crossroads, as the tide of investment that lifted their lives swiftly recedes, leaving behind shattered lives. If we fail to help new democracies now facing hard times, the pendulum may well swing back, away from freedom and toward the iron hand.
Desperate people look for simple solutions.
They often come from leaders more interested in power than people. The best way out of their economic difficulties is not less freedom but more. In sum, to help weak economies, we must foster strong democracies that can sustain support for the hard decisions required by global change. Clearly, America faces a full agenda in the world. And there is much more to do in the year ahead.