He wrote this essay for the Los Angeles Times. Clinton's words highlight a melancholy paradox.
Leadership is a quintessentially American idea, but it has recently suffered multiple challenges.
Lowly villains such as Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and the Burmese junta sense that the lion is wounded. Even America's allies have doubts. France is openly obstructionist over Iraq and Iran, Germany has questioned NATO's right to use force in Kosovo without prior United Nations authority, Japan is resisting U.S. pressure to reflate its economy. Saudi Arabia has offered, at best, halfhearted cooperation on terrorism. These leadership problems present a considerable puzzle.