On the more conservative end, also in 2003, Oxford-based historian Niall Ferguson published Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. In this excessively rosy recap of the good established by the British Empire in the colonies, he sought old solutions to current problems. He applauded Blair’s internationalism, but concluded: “There is, in truth, only one power capable of playing an imperial role in the modern world, and that is the United States.” The obvious lesson the US could take from Britain was that “the most successful economy in the world... can do a very great deal to impose its preferred values on less technologically advanced societies”.

For the US, now in election 2008 mode, increased anti-Americanism and rising human costs of occupation are making more shrill calls to bring the troops back home. Blair, however, is still convinced that the verdict on ‘liberal interventionism’ is not in. Even if the Middle East assignment does not come to pass, the fact that hope fluttered on Palestine upon rumours that he could now work out of a West Bank office must be an optimistic sign for him. He who insisted that history would judge his decision on Iraq is still thought capable of bearing influence in the neighbourhood.