By THOMAS P.M. BARNETT, Scripps Howard News Service

As far as grand strategy goes, Barack Obama comes to the presidency totally unburdened by his past, as this is truly his first act in international political theater. Plus he's unusually credentialed as a presumed agent of future change -- his biracial background alone. In ideological terms, he's a relatively free agent.

When piracy threatens global commerce, great powers need to fight back --collectively.

As America's strategic dialogue with Russia shifts into reverse over our planned missile defense in Eastern Europe, President-elect Obama has an opportunity to curtail this foolish turn of events, but only if he doesn't fear being labeled "soft" by hardliners hell-bent on protecting that astronomically costly boondoggle.

Barack Obama's victory presents to America a wonderful opportunity to redefine our engagement with the world's rising great powers. Along those lines, it's worthwhile to remember what Bush-Cheney got right with China.

The doom-and-gloomers own the field right now with this global financial panic -- no surprise there. But gleeful proclamations about the "death" of globalization, capitalism, the West, America, America's superpower status, and so on are a bit much. A lot of celebrated experts, starting with Karl Marx, have made such claims before.

There is an old Washington saying that "where you stand depends on where you sit," meaning policy views correlate to bureaucratic position.This is worth remembering as General David Petraeus begins his strategy review of Afghanistan. Those looking for an instant replay of his counterinsurgency tactics in Iraq will be disappointed.

As our financial crisis unfolds, Americans suffer a serious bout of existential ennui. Unsure of whom we are or our global role anymore, our self-doubt scares the world in near-equal measure. Predictably, both skeptics at home and challengers abroad tell us that we must get used to this post-American world. My advice is to resist these sirens' song.

Whatever this national election's outcome, one thing seems clear: it marks the end of the boomers' presidential reign. As if applying a devastating coda to this era's highly leveraged lifestyle, our current financial crisis indicates that we have reached the end of that political generation's dysfunctional hyper-partisanship and lack of fiscal discipline.

China's ongoing dairy crisis highlights the fundamental dynamic of globalization: high-trust markets linking up to low-trust environments. The results are predictable: tainted product scandals, followed by sweeping new regulations.