Among the Republicans contesting their party’s presidential nomination this year, there is only one man whom the world would definitely prefer over Barack Obama.

The world may be a bystander in America’s presidential election, but it watches carefully. Americans in November elect the most powerful man on the planet and conservative primary voters, starting this January, may be choosing that man.

Although we recognize that their economic predicament takes precedence over questions of foreign and trade policy, in today’s global society, where the collapse of a single American investment bank can bring down the whole of the developed world’s economy, the three are in fact intertwined.

So we have a stake in the matter. Especially at a time of economic calamity, Americans need a president who recognizes that access and openness to investment and trade is of paramount importance. There can be no recovery, in America or elsewhere, if nations slide into protectionism; if “Made in America” is not an emblem of pride and of quality but a harbinger of nationalist revival and an attempt to reverse the trend of globalization.

One nation’s growth cannot come at the expense of another. Nor can there be an industrial renaissance in the United States if it cannot afford anymore to champion freedom and opportunity abroad. (more…)