His team is reportedly considering setting up an "aggregator bank", to acquire bad assets clogging the financial system and roiling world economies.

Any recovery from the economic crisis would depend on banks first writing off toxic loans to restore confidence in the financial system.

Experts reckon that the global slowdown could deepen unless countries unite to brave it.

For a US president who campaigned with a call to rally "world citizens", the steep recession and the stalled flow of financial credit could be a pivotal hinge to welcome more partnerships to meet these challenges.

Rather than look solely inward, Obama must seize this momentum when so many nations may be seeking joint action.

As he looks across his nation's borders, his most important priority must be to show that the US is back in the business of exporting hope rather than fear, said Tao.

Obama has pledged to renew US diplomacy to meet with all nations, be they friends or foes, to mend through dialogue the tattered fabric of the US' reputation.

At a confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Clinton set the tone for the new administration's foreign policy – biding farewell to George W. Bush's unipolar fantasy and pursuing diplomacy of "smart power" – an effective combination of hard and soft power into a smart strategy.

The first big test of his diplomatic prowess will be the Middle East conflict. Obama says he will work for a peace deal from day one.

It appears that he is greeted by an Israeli declaration of a cease-fire, one that appears partly intended to ease Obama's Inauguration Day.

But in the long run, the new president will face a mountain of critical, complex, and interrelated challenges in the region demanding urgent attention.

A successful strategy in the Middle East, as Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, pointed out in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, will require the Obama administration to move beyond Iraq, find ways to deal constructively with Iran, and forge a final-status Israeli-Palestinian agreement.

Experts reckon the effectiveness of a steady withdrawal of troops from Iraq by late 2011 and a surge into Afghanistan will depend on events on the ground, including political compromises inside Iraq and dialogue with Iraq's neighbors, but a clear sense of direction has been established.

The improved situation in Iraq will allow the new administration to shift its focus to Iran.

Obama has pledged to conduct a direct official engagement with Iran, without the preconditions that hampered Bush.

As for the most urgent diplomatic issue in Asia – the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear program, the new administration may put pressure on Pyongyang by suspending the supply of fuel oil while stressing the importance of maintaining the Six-Party framework on the issue.

What all these initiatives have in common is a renewed emphasis on diplomacy as a tool of US national security policy, since days when Washington can achieve its objectives without the backing of its regional allies as well as Europe, Russia and China are long gone.

Clinton was right to say, "We must build a world with more partners and fewer adversaries."

Experts said China and the US depend so much on each other that they share a practical need to forge a new world order together.

It is sincerely hoped that the new administration will carry on and consolidate its predecessor's effective policy of developing rapport with China, for a healthy Sino-US relationship is key to the two countries as well as to the rest of the world.

Undoubtedly, Obama has a long and tricky policy challenge ahead of him, much like trying to walk on the edge of a sword.

The activists who loved him when he promised vaguely-defined change may love him less when he has to make hard choices.

He has to lay out to the world a new paradigm, something that goes beyond the war on terror and draws the partners of a re-imagined US, less aggressive but still indispensable.

With a fresh visionary in the White House, let us see further into the future.

(China Daily January 21, 2009)