There used to be a joke in San Francisco that the prettiest view of the Bay Area was from the top of the Transamerica building. Why? Because that was the only place in the city from which you couldn’t see the Transamerica building. In a similar way, the rosiest view of globalisation has traditionally come from the American governing classes – from which you cannot see the interests of the major globalisers, only the ideals. Barack Obama’s speech to the United Nations this week is a sign that he is having no more success than his predecessors in figuring out where interests leave off and ideals pick up.

It is embarrassing to accuse an American politician of wishing for “global government” – a bête noire of uncouth anti-communists in the 1950s and 1960s. But Mr Obama’s arguments are meant to move matters in that direction – away from self-determination and towards what is today called co-operation. “Like all of you, my responsibility is to act in the interest of my nation and my people,” he said, “and I will never apologise for defending those interests. But it is my deeply held belief that in the year of 2009 the interests of nations and peoples are shared.” The key word in this passage, as anyone can see, is “but”.