This is good news, particularly for the poor. But many hurdles remain, and now the world must focus on three critical issues.

For China, accepting lower growth provides a crucial opportunity to support stable and sustainable development. If China s leaders stay the course of reform and rebalancing, the entire global economy will be better off.

If failure is an unavoidable part of the innovation game, and if government is crucial for innovation, society must be more tolerant of government failure. But the reality is that when government fails, there is public outcry and silence when it succeeds.

The West should seek to mollify Russia on core strategic questions like NATO expansion. But that will not help Putin to overcome the source of Russia s weakness, which lies in his inability or unwillingness to see the Soviet Union for the failure that it was.

It is the only way to ensure that merit trumps favoritism and thus to end the country s colossal misallocation of resources. When credit is politicized, investment priorities quickly become distorted.

I found that out a few weeks ago while visiting a refugee center in Beirut, where mothers pleaded with me to get their children into school. They understood that while nutrition and health care are vital to survival, education which enables young people to prepare and plan for the future is what gives them hope.

My government will not allow Pakistan s schools so vital to our country s future to become targets of terrorism. Education is the most important investment we can make in our most precious assets our children and we will not tolerate even the slightest threat to it.