Gabor Steingart

(Opening Remarks at the Book party in Washington D.C., May 2008)

A warm welcome to Mr. Ambassador Dr. Klaus Scharioth and his wife, dear Senator Birch Bayh, thank you for coming to our house, a big round of applause for Steve Pearlstein from the Washington Post, who just recently won the Pulitzer Prize 2009, dear colleagues and friends: It´s a great honor to have you all here.

Thank you Dennis and Marnie for hosting this book party. After 10 days of constant rain you managed to brighten things up a little bit. That’s the change we needed.

On the book cover you find only one author, but what you see inside is the work of so many different people. So I have to say thank you for all the great support.

Thank you to Henry Kissinger, who helped me to find my way in the American book market. Thank you to Allison Kaminsky who is fired up bringing the new kid on the block on the screen. I have to thank my agent David McCormick and of course Frank Hornig, my Spiegel colleague from New York, who helped me to find him. I would like to send my warmest regard to all the fine people of McGraw Hill. A big thank you to Knox Huston, my editor who has left his office on the 26 floor in New York coming down to the Washington DC ground level. Thanks Knox not only for coming. You have done a terrific job. I loved our discussions. I will miss you.

Thank you Peter for our open-minded exchanges and thanks for teaching me how to survive in an unknown territory called Washington DC. I am an alien, Peter Ross Range is not. He is a veteran of US journalism, who has served for Time Magazine in Berlin, as well as in Vietnam. Thank you for all your help and friendship.

A very special thank you I would like to send to Marnie for building my website. It is much more elegant and sophisticated than the author himself. Please visit: gaborsteingart.com.

My special thanks goes to Thomas L. Friedman from the New York Times. Reading his books made it easier for me to find my ideas. Often it takes somebody to challenge you to help find the core idea of your own thinking. I respect and admire him even if we disagree on some issues.

Why another book about globalization? you might ask.

My answer: Everything is already written, but not by me.

To put it more seriously. Everybody in the upcoming general election is selling big portions of change. You can buy it enriched with hope – then it comes from a former community organizer. Or it is loaded with experience – then it will be offered by a war veteran.

But real change needs more then a politician. For example you and me. I have written a book for you and me. It should help us to understand what´s going on outside.

The core idea of this book is to bring ordinary people and their politics back to the table. The global economy is not made by god father. The great shift in power and prosperity is not following a secret law. Rising inequality in the western countries is not a destiny. Trade is not a matter of belief, it’s a matter of interests. It’s about politics, stupid!

Western cooperation for me is not only part of our history, it should be part of our future as well. Together we can do a better job. If we don´t defend our way of life, our way of producing, our democratic capitalism system, nobody will do it. It needs the United States of the West to integrate others in our system.

So this book also works as a roadmap to a world which should be a better, not only a faster place.

Now you have to decide. Option one: I could deliver a 45 minute long speech about all the aspects of globalization. In Germany we like to take our guests hostage.

Option two: We enjoy the party and you carry a free copy of my book home.

I see, you have made your decision. Timea, I need some assistance now. Please bring me the Obama wine. Its called “hope”. I hope we will not have a hangover when the election day is over.

Cheers. Thank you for coming, thank you for listening.