People and Cultures
Countries have personalities, or, more strictly, people from a particular culture have similarities. For example, there's a stereotype that German's have no sense of humour and are very methodical; the Italians are lay-back; the Poms are reserved etc. Of course, this not true of everyone. There are inefficient Germans, efficient Italians and very friendly English people. However, these generalisations are very useful for understanding world events.
For example, I sometimes think that George Bush et al developed their foreign policy from watching Star Trek and its offshoots, and another similar US series called Stargate. For those not familiar with these programs, Star Trek (there were three or four variations) concern the crew on a star ship (the 'Enterprise') who's aim is to 'Explore new civilisations etc.' Although this is supposed to be a time in the future when all of Earth is united it is under a US-type government, countries have formed into the United Federation (a sort of super-USA), and the culture is distinctly American, or at least an idealistic version of the USA.
The crew of the Enterprise have to follow the 'Prime Directive', that is, they must not intervene in another culture. They are there to observe. In fact, this is frequently broken and the crew frequently intervene. Stargate is a variation on the same theme. The interesting thing is that the US team is always seen as benign, they are never a threat to civilisations.
This seems to be the attitude of US foreign policy. George Bush sees himself as Captain Kirk on the Enterprise assisting civilisations that haven't reached the maturity of the USA. The problem is that the script doesn't quite play out as Gene Roddenberry would have written it. The alien civilisations aren't all grateful for the assistance of a superior civilisation.
French foreign policy is based on standing up to the influence of English speaking countries. The French (and French Canadians) have a fear of their language being drowned out by English and this affects their foreign policy.
On the other hand, the English, Australians and the United States have natural affinity based on their language and culture, though New Zealand has gone against this tendency to a certain extent by aligning themselves with the English-speaking hippy movement.
