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This book is centered on essays by Robert Zoellick, Peter Sutherland, and Hisashi Owada. The United States, Zoellick writes, has "four strategic objectives that would preserve and expand the political community it sponsored after World War II. First, the United States needs to overhaul the ties with its two primary overseas partners, Western Europe and Japan, to better meet a new generation of challenges." Sutherland frames the central challenges for the European Union in terms of "maintaining the supranational core in an enlarged Union whilst contemporaneously relating Europe positively to globalization.... (A) failure to achieve internal reform will seriously hold back the EU's global role; enlargement would be put on hold, energies would be diverted to internal issues, confidence would evaporate and the EU would lose credibility and support among its citizens." Owada writes about Japan and also about "trilateralism" in the present-day international system. The basic rationale of trilateralism in this present-day system is "for the consolidation of the order based on pax consortis in an age of interdependence.... The problems can only be dealt with adequately through a mechanism of management based on shared responsibility among the major players in the system that have the will and capacity to play such a role."

"The specific question we explore is: What are the special roles and responsibilities of democracies in preventing deadly conflict, not only between themselves, but also among other states in the international system? As David Hamburg has observed, the established democracies "are likely to take the lead in formulating international norms of conduct with respect to intergroup relations, the proliferation of highly lethal weaponry, economic development in poorer nations, human rights, and the growth of democratic institutions. . The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a prime example of the ability of the established democracies to work together. . ." Hamburg then goes on to ask provocatively: "Could a similar alliance, involving a wider coalition of democracies, be organized to ensure security on a worldwide basis, fuel economic growth with fairness, protect cultural diversity, and foster democratic values?"2 We focus here on the particular roles and responsibilities of democracies not to diminish the significance of other essential actors. Rather, recognizing that democracies wield great power, we explore their commensurate obligation to assume great responsibilities. At the outset, it may be useful."--Page 2.

This book is centered on essays by Robert Zoellick, Peter Sutherland, and Hisashi Owada. The United States, Zoellick writes, has "four strategic objectives that would preserve and expand the political community it sponsored after World War II. First, the United States needs to overhaul the ties with its two primary overseas partners, Western Europe and Japan, to better meet a new generation of challenges." Sutherland frames the central challenges for the European Union in terms of "maintaining the supranational core in an enlarged Union whilst contemporaneously relating Europe positively to globalization.... (A) failure to achieve internal reform will seriously hold back the EU's global role; enlargement would be put on hold, energies would be diverted to internal issues, confidence would evaporate and the EU would lose credibility and support among its citizens." Owada writes about Japan and also about "trilateralism" in the present-day international system. The basic rationale of trilateralism in this present-day system is "for the consolidation of the order based on pax consortis in an age of interdependence.... The problems can only be dealt with adequately through a mechanism of management based on shared responsibility among the major players in the system that have the will and capacity to play such a role."