The Curse of Good Intentions

Anyone who travels, as I just have, on a book tour in the U.S., will return to Asia with two conflicting impressions. First, the openness of the American mind and a willingness to listen to foreign criticisms; second, the remarkable ignorance in America about the new world it has created. This has generated a curious paradox. The U.S. has done more than any other country to change the world. Yet it is one of the nations least prepared to handle the world it has changed.

The trip of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice through Asia has briefly...