In order to project a non-hostile, non-threatening image, all of the following must be true:

• Actual, objective policy towards the rest of the world must be non-hostile and non-threatening. Good PR can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but if you're holding a loaded gun to their head, you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

• The political institutions must be able to articulate their policy in terms that do not carry associations to previous hostility. Having a nitwit like Tory Bliar saying that he's proud of the British Empire is not helpful, regardless of actual policy and his influence on it.

• The parts of civil society that interact with the rest of the world - engineers stationed abroad, businessmen attending conferences, producers of cultural products that can be expected to find their way across borders, even simple tourists - must meet the rest of the world with an attitude that does not carry associations to arrogant colonial overlords.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.