The dry and humorless Prestowitz is now ready for an appearance with Jay Leno. Actually, it does make very good sense. What the establishment (its pinnacle is found at the meetings of the NSC, which is, in effect, a ruling council of the US with a strong executive officer position) wants is US-dominated multilateralism--that is, a US-dominated 'consensus' in WTO, OECD, NATO, IMF/WB, etc. In times of crisis, the US pushes this to the extreme of being all-out unilateralist. It would seem it's too easy for the NSC as ruling council to get out of touch with its elite constituency (which has to do business on a global scale).
So Prestowitz's piece fits well within the genre of establishment academics and think tankers writing op-ed dreck saying things like 'the US can't go it alone' or 'US has to listen to allies'.
What they don't understand is that things have polarized to the extent that the elite of other countries want real consensus in global institutions, and a US role no larger than its relative size, if that. A real revolution will come if the Blair faction of UK labor has to distance itself from Bush foreign and military policy, and if Japan, due to a deepened economic crisis (what with the yen getting stronger...), backs down from supporting the US agenda for the WTO (complete liberalization of 'networked' services, an agreement reached back in the late 80s starting with 'FIRE' services).
CJ
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