The US must carry out some act somewhere in the world which shows its determination to continue to be a world power.

The Chinese, on the other hand, were in the position of having an American military spy plane on a Chinese military base and they had their own internal problems to deal with. At first, the Chinese weren't all that belligerent. They were just stalling to get their own bureaucracy in line.

I do not believe that Putin intends to leave office in a Cold War atmosphere with the United States.

One has to remember that every progress that has been made towards peace in the Middle East has come under American leadership.

Like any developing country, it has an inequality of wealth. In the Chinese case, it is particularly [pronounced] by the fact that they decided they couldn't make the whole country move forward simultaneously, so they've started region by region. So the interior regions are much less well off than the coastal regions. And this is certainly a huge challenge, because it produces a flow of populations from the poorer regions to the richer regions.

China has had a long and complex history and has managed to evolve its own culture for 4,000 years. It therefore not necessarily true that we know exactly what is best for the internal structure of China.

For the Soul of France is masterful history, brilliantly researched, and hard to put down.