April 15, 2010 Adrian Hamilton: Obama's interests are not always ours If he has preferences it is for a Cold War bilateralism with Russia and China This week's summit in Washington on nuclear terrorism saw the largest gathering of heads of state since the UN was founded more than 60 years ago. But then the summit of G20 countries on the financial crisis the US held in Washinton in November 2008 was the biggest gathering of its sort since Bretton Woods half a century before, while the Copenhagen Summit of 192 countries on the environment last December was the biggest gathering of its sort ever.Not that the earlier meetings produced results commensurate with their billing. A new Bretton Woods reorganising international financial flows as well as regulating them is what we were promised at the G20. The reality has been an avalanche of individual, national initiatives, as governments have tried to respond to the anger of their electorates at the behaviour of the banks, but precious little international co-ordination - still less any agreement on currencies a la Bretton Woods. If anything the world is now further from a global agreement on finance than we were when the leaders of all those countries met in Washington and then again in London in April last year.The results of the Copenhagen Summit were even more disappointing. It was billed as the last great chance for united action on climate warming, the moment when the world had to stand up and be counted. It didn't, of course, leaving the work of two years' preparation and the hopes of those seeking a great overarching agreement dashed. What replaced it, in the talks held by President Obama directly with China and a few major developing countries, is far from worthless, but it is also far…

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