The smell from the Blair administration in the United Kingdom increasingly resembles a stench. No one knows whether the cash-for-honours affair will end up with charges, and of what kind, or with a decision by the police not to proceed. But even if it is the latter, the stain will remain; the overriding feeling that Tony Blair’s premiership was tainted with wrongdoing will persist.

Just a few years ago, the world was in thrall to the idea of American power. The neoconservative agenda not only infused the outlook of the White House, it also dominated the global debate about the future of international relations. Following 9/11, we had, in quick succession, the “war on terror”, the “axis of evil”, the idea of a new American empire and the overarching importance of military power.

Just a month after the American electorate delivered a resounding rebuff to the Bush Iraq policy, the great and the good — in the guise of the Iraq Study Group — have subjected that policy to a withering critique. The administration has had the political equivalent of a car crash. George W Bush is being routinely condemned as one of the worst presidents ever, writes Martin Jacques.

The election of Shinzo Abe as the leader of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and now prime minister will have profound repercussions for Japan and East Asia. Most Western commentary during the premiership of Junichiro Koizumi has been concerned with the extent to which Japan has allowed a freer rein to market forces. While that is important, the question that should really detain us is Japan’s growing nationalism.