We, as others, look forward to working with you on the many challenges ahead and are confident that you will be able to steer us through any shoals we encounter along the way.

BRUSSELS A storm tossed ship near dangerous cliffs needs a strong anchor to avoid finishing on the rocks. In 2012, when a financial storm engulfed the eurozone, it was Germany that kept the European ship off the shoals of financial disaster.

Moreover, China s bullying of the Philippines included not only the dispatch of warships to Scarborough Shoals, but also the sudden imposition of import restrictions on Filipino produce. And China s reactions toward Japan are far more paranoid since a non LDP government took power.

Today s marine environment is truly under siege. When the explorer John Cabot sailed off the coast of Newfoundland more than 500 years ago, vast shoals of cod slowed down his ships crews could lower buckets over the side and fill them with fish.

It was this Sunni hegemony and not merely that of Saddam s Ba athist regime that was toppled by the United States. But, given Iraq s history and demography, the American attempt to refashion the country as a functioning democracy has foundered on three shoals the Shia majority s empowerment, the Kurds s refusal to give up their hard won de facto mini state in the north, and the Sunnis violent campaign to undermine any system that they do not lead.