but with emphasis, reemphasis on asia, continuance on the middle east but innovative partnerships around the world that could involve a lighter footprint in cases. >> rose: tom donilon for the hour next. funding for charlie rose was provided by the following: captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. . >> rose: tom donilon is here, he is the president's national security advisor. part of his job is to prepare and deliver the presidential daily brief on national security. joe biden has called him the most important person in the mix this week in the vice president spoke about foreign policy challenges at the munish security conference. >> we have made it clear at the outset that we would not-- we would be prepared to meet bilaterally with the irani leadership. we would not make it a secret that we were doing that. we would let our partners know if that occasion presented itself. that offer stands. nearly all of our partners and allies are convinced that president assad is a tyrant, hell-bent on clinging to power, is no longer fit

but with emphasis, reemphasis on asia, continuance on the middle east but innovative partnerships around the world that could involve a lighter footprint in cases, and indeed if you talk to the chief of staff of the army, who served in iraq as you know as our commander there, he would tell you that we are working on innovative partnerships. >> cot lab rattive work. >> so we can pain taken our global footprint, maintain our commitments, but do it in a more efficient and effective way. >> a couple of things. clearly the president said in his west point speech that he understands that you can't have a great global strategic plan without a strong economy at home. >> absolutely. >> in order to be as effective and have the leverage you have you need to have a strong economy at home. that's one thing. the over thing that people say in the first term that the president may have been, may have learned a lesson with respect to the surge in afghanistan. and it may have not really wanted to do that but he was convinced by the military to do it and he regrets it. >> well, that's not the case. let me-