His greatest challenge may lie in how to achieve reform without undermining the openness, appetite for change, work ethic, self-reliance and can-do optimism that any immigrant to these shores, and particularly a European one, recognizes as distinctively and essentially American.
"The W.T.O. has so far deterred economic nationalism," he said, "but the sluggish pace of recovery raises concerns that a steady trickle of restrictive trade measures could gradually undermine the benefits of trade openness.
The Commission decided Microsoft would have no incentive to undermine the GitHub's openness — saying any attempt to do so would reduce its value for developers, who the Commission judged as willing and able to switch to other platforms.
A nastier China is the result.In the short term at least, these troubling developments undermine the comforting idea that economic openness necessarily leads to the political sort.
The crackdown has even led the Economist magazine to begrudgingly conclude: "In the short term at least, these troubling developments undermine the comforting idea that economic openness necessarily leads to the political sort".
Openness does not undermine the existing participatory models and techniques, but provides conceptual means for their more effective application, and opens up avenues for developing new kinds of effective participatory practices that aim for societal development through collaborative creation of knowledge.
The openness of Zhuangzi's pluralism does undermine the justification of political authority that was assumed in ancient China.
Mr. Clinton said earlier this year that such efforts were fruitless and that eventually, the openness spawned by increased commercial contacts would undermine the Communist Party's power.
There was a sense on the streets of Ottawa, too, that surrendering the city's cherished openness would be to hand victory to those who sought to undermine the nation's democratic foundations.
