To find a precedent for France’s current diplomatic self-effacement, one would have to go back to the Suez crisis of 1956 or the Algerian war. Neither the international conference on the environment to be held in Paris, norPresident François Hollande’s bellicose, inarticulate speeches, norhis foreign minister’s incorrigible self-satisfaction do much to mask France’s fall on the international stage.

There has been a fundamental shift in world diplomacy the major initiatives in the Middle East, no matter how self-seeking, are now coming from non-western nations.

Despite President Xi Jinping’s high-profile diplomacy, Chinese investment cannot carry the nation’s economic future. Xi must persuade the Chinese people of the need for more modest consumption, services and social welfare.