Now may hardly seem the time to imagine a more global future, let alone do so with optimism. Most of us are hard pressed just to maintain the illusion that the present system is not breaking down, to deny with conviction what everyone knows – that the grand trade liberalisation project is, at best, on life support.

It is only natural to think conservatively, even defensively, when witnessing the collapse of an empire. Few outside the US doubt that America’s free-trade system, constructed with such care in the decades after the war, is crumbling fast. The proximate cause is America’s looming bankruptcy. As the ongoing Doha round of world trade negotiations has already proved, the US simply lacks the currency – in the form of believable promises of sustainable access to the US marketplace – to “buy” the next round of trade liberalisation, as Washington has “bought” every round since the 1960s. Clearly no other nation is willing or able to take America’s place.