Diplomats will tell you that the divisions over Iraq are behind us now, and that the system for managing international relations is operating smoothly again.

The third chapter in this story is just beginning, and it has the potential to be the most difficult of all.

Looking back over the material that BBC World Service has collected for this series one common denominator stands out. Everyone – whether America’s friends or enemies – now seems to take it as a first principle of international relations that nothing can really happen without American involvement.

This 'dependency culture' on American power is developing at just the moment when America’s intentions are likely to be most volatile because of the twin political pressures of a Presidential election year, and the steady rise in American deaths in Iraq.

Listen again
	Part Four