ABSTRACT
This chapter offers specific recommendations that provide the foundations for strengthening the US government's leadership role in responding to the new challenges posed by global environmental change and natural resource scarcities. Chinese and US economies are intimately connected, while the two countries also compete for geostrategic influence at regional and global levels. India, soon to be the world's most populous country, is an emerging economic and political force stabilizing South and Southeast Asia. Brazil represents a major provider of many agricultural commodities on world markets, and the country's agricultural productivity has a major influence on global food security. Global pressure to halt deforestation, a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, went largely unheeded until 2005, when the Brazilian Amazon suffered its worst drought in over a century with devastating effects on the forests, local populations, and economy.
