Mr Blair is the first prime minister since the second world war to enunciate a detailed philosophy of British power in the modern world.

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Mr Turing worked as part of the team which cracked the Enigma code at Bletchley Park in World War II and went on to help create the world's first modern computer, the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine.

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But all of those negative third years were prior to World War II, not in the post-1950 modern market era.

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Our modern military was forged in the crucible of World War II.

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The development of the modern computer was in no small part accelerated by World War II.

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But the third time was the charm for those in emerging markets to finally run a post-World War II institution in modern times.

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The most enduring embargo in modern day history is a remnant of a Cold War past when the Soviet Union was the enemy and the world was on the brink of nuclear war.

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It did so in the 19th century, adopting modern ways to avoid being colonised, and again after the second world war.

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Like the pro-democracy demonstrators out in the streets of Cairo this week, immediately after World War I, Egypt was filled with hope for developing a modern, tolerant society.

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