One of Ours

There has probably never been a US presidential election as eagerly anticipated outside America as this year's run-off between George Bush and John Kerry. In Britain, as in the rest of Europe, the prospect of victory for the challenger carries with it the hope that the acrimony and divisions of the last three years might give way to a new era of transatlantic understanding and cooperation...

...A Democratic president would help to mitigate its influence, but even Clinton felt the need to pander to Republican prejudices in favour of National Missile Defence and against the United Nations. This tendency will persist, to a greater or lesser extent, as long as global power relations remain distorted in America's favour...

...If we wish to regain some measure of control of our own destiny, it is time to face up to the simple truth that we can only do so by combining with those who share our values and interests to pose an explicit challenge to American primacy...