Outgoing British Ambassador to the U.S. Sir David Manning hints that rumors of the death of American power have been greatly exaggerated. While not Churchillian in his buck up, suck up utterances, Manning managed not to blame us for stealing all the good BBC shows and often ruining them. Or for exporting the worst of our culture and media excrement to London and Manchester.
It’s very easy to underestimate the power of this country to reinvent itself. There is still an extraordinary energy here. If you want something done, America is still the place to come and look for the pioneering new technology, the capital formation, the people who will take the risks.
Manning was replying to Gordon Brown’s new Foreign Secretary David Miliband who essentially said the age of American preponderance was over. New powers such as China and Russia had already emerged — i.e., Kissinger’s Pentapolar World had finally arrived, albeit 30 some years overlate. [The Stiftung’s reply to Miliband another day].
