Yet Western civilisation actually presupposes the universal validity of its principles, which incorporate Judaeo-Christian ethics in secular form. Their universality reflects the notion that we are made in the image of God, and it is no accident that successive US presidents have invoked the Almighty quite naturally in the pursuit of America's providential mission. In this respect, the Obama presidency - which explicitly draws on the legacy of Martin Luther King - is likely to offer continuity rather than change.

An "Obama doctrine" that abandoned the universality and moral pre-eminence of Western values would not merely be an abandonment of the Bush doctrine, but an abdication of the basic premise of American leadership. The self-abasement that a chorus of critics have demanded from America is as implausible as it is undesirable. So far, Mr Obama has shown no sign that he is about to grovel to America's adversaries, or even to its allies. The danger is that, in distancing himself from an unpopular predecessor, he will also abandon the cause for which so much blood and treasure has been sacrificed, leaving the rest of the free world to fend for itself. For the sake of Western civilisation, Mr Obama may have to break Europe's heart