The end of hegemony

Columnist Martin Wolf describes the upcoming American presidential elections in the Financial Times as the last vestiges of Anglo-American global hegemony: "They [the Democratic candidate Barack Obama and the Republican candidate John McCain] also reflect divergent elements in the tradition: the instincts for conflict and for co-operation. The first instinct seeks enemies and the latter deals. The former is manichean and the latter conciliatory. ... This presidential election might well determine the character of the next, possibly final, epoch of Anglo-American global hegemony. The question is whether the American people will choose the instinct for conflict or that for co-operation. ... Neither Mr McCain nor Mr Obama will, in practice, embrace just one alternative. Nor will just one approach be the only answer. But the difference in tendency is clear. Is the US girding its loins for another great crusade against evil? Or is it prepared to sit down with the rest of the world and talk. The right approach for today's complex world is not that of those who see agreement and appeasement as synonyms. The choice seems clear. It will shape our era."

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