Canadais the secondlargest nation in the world, yetitonly shares a land borderwith one othercountry: the U. S.A. Thatmeansthereis agreat expanseto escape to.
Lord Patten, Oxford's chancellor, said the university's status as one of the world's great universities meant that it was a worthy recipient of such extra funding.
It was history's odd timing: Agreat historical rupture in the Arab world, bearing within it the promise of remaking a flawed political tradition that knew no middle ground between despotism and nihilistic violence, happened on the watch of an American president proud of his deliberateness and his detachment from history's passions.