What Bush and Kerry Missed; The West has long taken Asia for granted, seeing it as a stage where Great Power rivalries could be played out. But this too will change.

Publication: Newsweek

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Byline: Fareed Zakaria (Write the author at comments@fareedzakaria.com)

The presidential debates are lauded for having been substantive and revealing. In particular, people have noted how rare it is to have a serious discussion about foreign policy these days. Except that we did not have a serious discussion about foreign policy. We had one about Iraq. And thousands of miles away, there is a new world coming into being--one that America is quite unprepared to handle.

There have been two great shifts in the international balance of power over the past 500 years. The first was the rise of Western Europe, which by the late 17th century had become the richest, most dynamic and expansionist part of the globe. The second was the rise of the...

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