A US scheme to pinpoint future VIPs has spent 70 years introducing power-brokers-to-be to the American way. So how can you tell who will one day be a head of state?

As part of the highly prestigious – and expensive – programme, participants are hand-picked to spend typically three weeks visiting Washington DC and three additional towns or cities, meeting their counterparts and other VIPs and experts – all highly valuable networking experience for any ambitious young man or woman on the climb.

But its supporters say it operates more subtly than that, aiming not to convert opponents but to give future opinion-formers an understanding of how America works.

Despite this apparently humble status, Prof Scott-Smith says Balkenende was already a keen networker, leading US officials to conclude he would be getting ahead under his own steam regardless of their intervention.

"What they want to do is pick up as much local knowledge as possible. That means talking to political party leaders but it also involves having good contacts with museum directors and so on.

"It's not just a US operation. It's about mutual interest. There's this ongoing fascination with the US. We're still in a world where we look to the US for leadership, for influence, for potential sources of solutions."

Not everyone views the programme so benignly, however. Intelligence expert Robin Ramsay, editor of Lobster magazine, accepts it is likely that all the beneficiaries of the project's largesse would have risen to the top anyway.

But he argues that the notion of a major power courting the future elite of another nation state offers cause for alarm.

"I'm concerned because I think Britain should be independent," he says. "I think the idea of a foreign country interfering in our politics is worrying."

Certainly, a 2006 study by Prof Scott-Smith (PDF) suggests the programme was used in the early 1980s to reach out to young Labour politicians, including Blair and Brown, at a time when scepticism about the Atlantic alliance was prevalent within the party.

However, Philip Breeden, press counsellor at the US embassy in London, insists such concerns are misplaced. He says the scheme works to the advantage of both his country and those of the programme's alumni.

"There's an obvious benefit to have people in public life understanding each other better across national boundaries," he says. "This is people-to-people diplomacy, not country-to-country diplomacy.

"What we're looking for is people who are making a contribution to their community, who we think will advance in their chosen career path, who will serve as a good link between our two countries."

Whatever your view of the scheme, one truth remains unquestionable: our future elite are still out there. And if anyone can find them, the Americans know how to do it.

Originally Published On: www.bbc.co.uk – Original Article Here