Hegemonic leadership can never be perennial. This year, the US had the opportunity to sustain its pretence of being the "leader of the free world". In choosing to give President George W Bush a renewed and stronger mandate, America has declared the terms on which it will seek to exercise leadership, both at home and abroad.

Much of the rest of the world disagrees, making 2004 the hinge-year, demarcating a period of global gloom, from one in which challenges to hegemonic power will become stronger and more sustained, hopefully laying the foundations for a more just global order.

But that is just hope. "Enduring Freedom" is what the first phase of the ongoing "war on terror" was christened by US strategic planners.

In a rather ironic fashion, it proved more than appropriate to the twisted agenda the US has pursued since. As Noam Chomsky was quick to point out, much of the turmoil in the world today is a consequence of too many countries having for too long "endured" what the US describes as "freedom".