Washington pic“The US begins the millennium looking for all the world like a new Rome: only grander and more authoritative than the original,” stated Columbia University law professor Charles Sabel in his 1999 essay An Unlikely Democracy: the US at the Millennium.

While his words were evidently designed to spark heated debate, they also reflect a growing realisation across the world that the decisions emanating from Capitol Hill are likely to be felt far beyond the country’s borders.