Running the gauntlet through hostile crowds, and some wearing motorbike helmets to prevent injury.

Conceived as a long overdue shift in resources and attention from wars and other urgent challenges in the Middle East toward the vast expanse of opportunities in the Asia Pacific region, America s much vaunted strategic pivot immediately ran into a gauntlet of unintended consequences (the handmaidens of inconsistent and poorly articulated policy).

Still, Obama has wisely thrown down the gauntlet, calling for a new era of government activism. He is right to do so, because many of today s crucial challenges saving the planet from our own excesses ensuring that technological advances benefit all members of society and building the new infrastructure that we need nationally and globally for a sustainable future demand collective solutions.