AS HE swaggers down from his Texan ranch to the waiting cameramen, George W Bush looks every bit the all American boy. Sporting dusty denim jeans and a silver buckled belt, he won't be the first cowboy to inhabit the Oval Office - it was, after all, one of Ronald Reagan's favourite guises in countless movies.

The wry smile, the close-set eyes, the witty quips reveal he is ideally suited for a career in big-time politics.

But what he doesn't look is an international statesman. Because he isn't.

The new Bush in the White House garden has left his native shores only twice in his life, and that was just to go to nearby Mexico. He hasn't met any of the European heads of government who form Nato and has shown that his knowledge of world affairs fails to stretch very far from life on the farm.

In command of the planet's most powerful nation, Bush is expected to retrench, to withdraw from the global theatre, ending the Bill Clinton era of the US being world policeman, world arbiter, world power.

Ironically, to do this Bush will need to use other countries, particularly Britain. To protect his shores, he hopes to press ahead with Star Wars II, the anti-missile missile system which would safeguard the States from attack.

Every test so far as been a complete disaster and the system needs a huge amount of development to get it working properly.

"Clearly it doesn't work and is going to require a substantial increase of Britain going along with America," says expert on US politics and policy at Newcastle University, John Vail.

Key to this National Missile Defence strategy are the listening bases at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, and Fylingdales, on the North York Moors.

'This is going to link Britain much closer to America. But it could also put a wedge between Britain and foreign policy in Europe as all the European partners are against this policy," adds Mr Vail.

With pressure growing in Europe for a rapid reaction force, which could operate independently of Nato, America's isolation seems ever more likely, an isolation which could lead to paranoia, xenophobia and conflict.

Tony Blair and Bill Clinton's close relationship is well known and unlikely to be mirrored by the Bush administration.

He is, though, a cordial, but not a close, acquaintance of the Conservative leader William Hague; the return of a Republican President to the White House will at least boost the British Tories as they prepare for a General Election that could come as early as next spring.

The relationship between Europe and America looks equally shaky with expected conflict between the currencies - the euro and the dollar - as they vie for world domination.

A self-centred US could have a destabilising effect on the rest of the world, particularly areas of conflict, such as the Middle East and Far East, where thousands of American troops currently make their weight felt.

Rooted in home soil, Bush is expected to make a huge impression on world affairs, not for what he does, but for what he doesn't do.

"I don't think there is much difference between the two (Bush and Al Gore)," Mr Vail says. "Bush will not do much, he has a more hands-off attitude. There will be fewer instances where he will get involved, less activity from the US.

"Bush is the only one so far to speak about Palestinian rights, but there is no way they will stop funding Israel."

The US has always been reluctant to get involved in the Balkans and there is expected to be no change there. Neither will it step into any African conflict, such as a Somalia or a Rwanda. As for Northern Ireland, don't expect to see Bush taking the same interest as Clinton.

Bush's disinterest in world affairs can be traced back to his upbringing. Although born in Connecticut, George Bush Jnr was brought up in Texas, a state with which he likes to be associated above any other. He loves nothing more than home-grown delights such as hillbilly music, Texas stew and the wide open spaces.

George W, once known as The Shrub (little Bush), is the oldest of four children. The family moved to Midland, the booming oil capital of West Texas, when George W was two. It was here that his father made his oil fortune.

George W attended Sam Houston Elementary School where he was described as a "stolidly mediocre" student whose main interest was baseball. But his leadership qualities did not emerge as a schoolboy.

He was more of a prankster, out for fun and occasionally getting walloped by his teachers. Even before he turned five years old, his father was complaining that his son "occasionally swears".

He was never an academic in a town which blared out nothing but capitalism. Democrats were thin on the ground.

But when he arrived at the nearby San Jacinto Junior High School, George W surprised everyone by running for office, as class president, and winning. Most had thought that his younger brother Jeb, now Governor of Florida, was the up-and-coming politician in the family.

In 1959, the Bush family moved to Houston and the young Bush went to the elite boarding school, the Philips Academy at Andover, which his father had attended. Eventually he went to Yale and then Harvard, but his academic record remained unimpressive.

On graduation, he served out his military obligations as a pilot in the National Guard operating out of Houston, although he avoided Vietnam.

But much mystery surrounds his years after Yale, his self-styled "nomadic days", when he had a succession of jobs, drank too much (a habit he abandoned in 1986), possibly took drugs briefly and lived a generally feckless, drifting existence.

But when in 1977 he returned to Midland he regained a sense of direction and set about emulating his father in acquiring an oil fortune. Within six months he had bought a home and set up an oil company.

By then he had married Laura Welch, a native Midlander, librarian and daughter of a local builder. They have twin daughters Jenna and Barbara. Laura is about as far as it is possible to get from the highly political outgoing First Lady, Hillary Clinton.

George W made an abortive bid for a seat in Congress. But he was still drinking too much.

It was on July 28, 1986, that he woke with a shocking hangover and a slumping oil business deeply in debt, and a resolution to start again.

The drinking stopped and Methodism kicked in. A company called Harken Energy Corp appeared on the scene, as though by magic, and George W was in business again. By now his father was only two years away from being President.

Eventually he sold his Harken stock advantageously and controversially, although he was found to have done nothing wrong, and he thus acquired the collateral to buy his stake in the Texas Rangers and the financial independence to run for office.

When he finally takes his seat in the White House the world's eyes will fall on the adopted Texan to see whether he and his policies are prepared to travel.