When, after an hour, talk shifted from introspection to geopolitics, the years seemed to slip away and he grew vigorous and forceful, his world view still wide ranging, detailed and commanding.
They can be traced to his family life, and in particular to his relationship with his father, Ronnie Cornwell, whom Garton Ash called "a picaresque, forceful, charming, world-class con man".
For a start, conservatives argue that President Barack Obama has embraced decline, and made America less forceful on the world stage and less successful at home.
"This is not a time for further study or vague directives," Mr. Giuliani declared in a speech that alternated between lessons in American civics and forceful appeals to the world to join forces in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
They appeared to be saying something forceful about the modern world, but with enough looking that forcefulness began to dissolve: was this a study in ultra-toxicity, or was it a benign terrain transformed by photographic sorcery?
"The political pendulum threatens to swing against economic openness, and without forceful policy actions, the world could suffer from disappointing growth for a long time".
Today, with the EU eager to play a forceful role on the world stage, a move towards a more open system appears to be inevitable.
BARGEMUSIC The polished and forceful Shanghai String Quartet offers the world première of Daniel Ott's "Blue Water" (with the violinist Mark Peskanov and the pianist Doris Stevenson assisting) on a program that also features quartets by Beethoven and Schubert (No. 14, "Death and the Maiden").
In addition to raising money for the We Are Family Project, to pay for psychological counseling for relief workers and victims' families, the sessions, which took place in New York and Los Angeles on Sept. 22 and 23, were intended to show the world a forceful demonstration of American multicultural solidarity.
The notion behind a common foreign policy, never mind a joint military, is for the EU to speak with one forceful voice on the world stage.
