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I thank my freind Professoe Weibo Gong of UMass for bringing the following to my attention.

The Munk Debate on 6/17/2011 among Neil Ferguson, David Li, FareedZakaria, and Henry Kissinger – with the first two speakers arguing for and thenext two against the motion

http://wwww.c-spanvideo.org/program/Munk  

 This is a fascinating  2 hour debate among four of the foremostgeopolitical thinkers in the world on this question. The only person perhapsnot yet well known to ScienceNet reader is Neil Ferguson, Professor of Historyat Harvard University.

I am also sure that  thisvideo is available for viewing in China since it is co-sponsored by thePeople’s Daily of China

If you don’t have time to watch the entire video of 2 hours, watchat least the first 38 minutes during which each debater argues for and againstthe motion of this title. If you are like me, then you will become convincedafter each speaker that “he is right!”

Thus, the question is how can this be so? I submit that the motionis really an artificial question posed to arouse interest. Each debater isreally addressing different issues raised by the question but not answering yesand no to the question. This is typical in debates. But the issues they addressare truly fascinating.