February
14, 2008 India, China may
Overwhelm US Economy: US Senator
By Arun Kumar
Washington
The US economy and foreign policy are at risk of being overwhelmed
by cosmic economic shifts driven by immense rapidly industrializing
societies like India and China, an American senator has warned.
"Neoclassical economics analyzed economic growth in terms of
capital, labor, and technical progress. But, I now think, it is
more enlightening to view the fundamental drivers as energy and
ideas," Republican senator Dick Lugar said Wednesday, citing
Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf.
"If Wolf is correct, and I believe he is, our economy and our
foreign policy are at risk of being overwhelmed by forces that are
receiving far too little attention within our government," said
Lugar at a Senate Foreign relations committee hearing on the State
Department budget.
Principal among these forces is the burgeoning demand for energy
from China, India and elsewhere, and the cosmic economic shifts that
are being driven by these immense, rapidly industrializing
societies, he said.
"The immediate effect is rising energy prices, but longer term
effects include accelerating climate change and shortages of
hydrocarbon supplies, both of which could become sources of
conflict," the senator said.
Lugar cited US agreement with India on civilian nuclear power and
with Brazil on biofuels "as examples of how our strategic alliances
can bring together our foreign policy, energy security and climate
change interests".
Congratulating Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for moving toward
a much-needed reinvigoration of US international energy diplomacy,
he hoped she would soon appoint an International Energy Coordinator.
Energy "is a really important part of diplomacy", agreed Rice.
"In fact, I think I would go so far as to say that some of the
politics of energy is warping diplomacy in certain parts of the
world," she said, announcing her intention to appoint a special
energy coordinator for the Central Asian and Caspian region.
Later, at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Rice
said the US had increased significantly the resources for public
diplomacy. Changing the way the State Department operates, she
planned to re-deploy people, "many of them out of Europe and into
growing places like India and Brazil and to China."
Noting that the US had almost as many Foreign Service officers in
Germany as it had in India, Rice said: "It seemed important to have
that redeployment. But even with those redeployments, it is
absolutely the case that the Foreign Service is too small."
Over four years 2,000 Foreign Service officers had been added, she
said. This year's budget asked for about 1,100 more Foreign Service
officers as well as 300 people for USAID, Rice said. "And I think it
is very important that we rebuild this civilian strength."
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