The pace has certainly changed in our strategic vision, our strategies at CSIS have broadened. Ever since 1973 we have been deeply involved in the energy resources equations and got into some population studies. It was out of this, and following the Social Security study panel, that the Global Aging Initiative emerged. And it was really like a light going on, as we were concerned how the impact of this was being missed. CSIS was into that issue over five years ago.
Some people now say it was a scare.
But we all dealt with it because we were forewarned and we took action. Other issues included the Asian banking crisis, the birth of the Euro and so forth. But as we evaluated the population shifts that are destined to occur within the next two decades it became clear that indeed demography is a major strategic trend that will change everything. In recent years the demographic long view has begun to dominate our social security debate as we prepared for the coming retirement of the baby boomers. It does not yet play a central role in the formulation of our foreign policy, however.