An Interview with Howard Dean

November 16, 2009

By Daniel Collings

What do you think will emerge from the COP15 climate change conference in Denmark?

I think probably not an agreement but major progress. The biggest problem is not going to be the United States. It’s going to be Brazil and China. The West can’t demand that they shoulder the same degree of responsibility as we do–and we shouldn’t, there needs to be compromise. But we can’t have a treaty that Brazil, India, China and South Africa are not included in.I would be thrilled if the basic inclusion of those countries could be negotiated. And if it is I think we’re going to get to where we need to go.

Do you think it is time for the US to engage in talks with North Korea at the highest level?

Well, we’ve been engaged in high-level talks. That was one thing that the Bush Administration did that I think was right. We have engaged in the six-party talks and I think we should continue that.

What about direct bilateral talks?

Well, there is not much point in having direct bilateral talks. The Chinese are the ones with the real leverage with North Korea. So I think the six-party talks are actually better than direct bilateral talks because I think frankly that, without the Chinese, we are not going to get much accomplished in North Korea.

What should be the guiding principles for relations with China?

I think we [the US] should consider China to be a strategic partner. They are our economic rival in some ways, but the Chinese have a society which has the same values as the United States does–stability and prosperity. So as long as we keep that in mind and so long as the Chinese are willing to have a long-term perspective and work in a constructive way–and I think there is every indication that that is the case now–then I think we can build a very strong partnership.

And the question of human rights?

My own thinking is that we need to keep pushing on human rights for sure. Second, despite the headlines they get in the West, [the Chinese] are improving their human rights situation. It’s certainly far from perfect, but they do care what their people think. This is an authoritarian regime, but a different kind of authoritarian regime. And they understand that feedback from the grassroots matters, they just have a very different way of doing it than Western democracies do.

In the United States, the Democrats now control the White House and both Houses of Congress. How confident are you that they can maintain this dominant position?

Demographics are working for us. The Republicans are going to have to go move away from the right wing ideologue base that they have. The base is smaller in terms of its influence on American politics, but as the Republican base has shrunk, this base becomes relatively bigger. So they have a very, very difficult transition to make.

During your 2004 presidential bid you helped bring the Internet revolution to political campaigning. But today you’re not on Twitter. Even Karl Rove tweets. Why don’t you?

[Laughs] Well, I have to be convinced that it’s a substantive thing and not just a gadget. Most of my experience with Twitter, which is relatively minimal, is ‘I’m going to the conference now’. ‘The speech is really interesting’. I mean, give me a break!