Unfortunately, the real focus in this country has not been on the rest of the world. It's been on our own issues and our own problems. Fair enough. But it means that our simple hopes that everything will just work out abroad aren't really coming to pass.

Russia has gone through eight years of continuing economic pain.

It's not an accident that the U.S. ranks lowest of all major donor countries in the world - that is the share of our income that goes to development aid. Americans will ask whether, because were so generous privately, that makes up the difference. But it doesn't. We still rank far below other countries.

White House and State Department foreign-policy experts are overwhelmingly directed towards military and diplomatic issues, not development issues.

In Asia, a lot of successful economies that had been living on their own saving, decided to open up their financial markets to international capital in the early 1990s. So here were countries doing quite well, but they decided to borrow a bit more and do even better.

The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet.

Extreme poverty is the best breeding ground on earth for disease, political instability, and terrorism.