End of the “Free World”?

Is the US leadership of the “free world” in jeopardy?  Gideon Rachman ( Financial Times ) suggests that the deeper question is whether there is still a free world to be leader of.  That is, he points to evidence from Copenhagen and elsewhere that suggests that world democracies don’t necessarily hang together, and thus do not necessarily hang with the US.

“Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and India are all countries whose identities as democracies are now being balanced – or even trumped – by their identities as developing nations that are not part of the white, rich, western world. All four countries have ruling parties that see themselves as champions of social justice at home and a more equitable global order overseas. Brazil’s Workers’ party, India’s Congress party, Turkey’s AKP and South Africa’s African National Congress have all adapted to globalisation – but they all retain traces of the old suspicions of global capitalism and of the US.”  As a result, they end up siding with China and Iran and not the US on a range of international issues.