Leaders For A New Age.(World Affairs)

Byline: Jeremy Kahn; With Stryker McGuire in London and Owen Matthews in Moscow

As the post-boomers take power, they could bring big change in the U.S., Europe and beyond.

Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done whatas needed to be done. Today we are called once moreaand itas time for our generation to answer that call.a That was U.S. Sen. Barack Obama announcing his presidential candidacy last February. The echo of John F. Kennedyas 1961 Inaugural Addressaathe torch has been passed to a new generationaais no accident. The 46-year-old Obama is among the youngest serious contenders for the American presidency since JFK, who was just 43 when he took the oath of office. And Obamaas campaign has been eager to invite parallels to the youthful president.

In New Hampshire and in Iowa, Obama found that a new generation was indeed ready to answer his call. Although his older rival Hillary Clinton edged him out in New Hampshire, Obama led heavily among voters under the age of 30, according to exit polls. His victory in the Iowa caucuses was the result of a record turnout, particularly among the young. Exit polls there showed him supported by 60 percent of those under 25 and half of those under 45, while older caucusgoers favored Clinton. While it is too soon to know whether Obama will clinch the Democratic nomination, let alone the presidency, America is far from the only nation where baby-faced politicians are dominating the headlines. In Europe as well, men and women too young to have been shaped by either of the two major ideological contests of the 20th centuryathe battle against fascism and the long twilight struggle against communismaare reaching the highest echelons of political power.

In Britain, Foreign Secretary David Miliband is just 42. He is among the most prominent members of whatas been called the asecond generationa of New Labour, a group whose ranks include Milibandas younger brother, Ed, 38, who is a minister in the Cabinet Office, and Ed Balls, 40, secretary of State for children, schools and families and one of the prime ministeras closest advisers. Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, David Cameron, is just 41. Across the channel, Nicolas Sarkozy, very much a baby boomerahe turns 53 this monthawon the French presidency last year railing against the a a68ersaathose on the left whose political identities were forged in Paris street battles of the 1960s and who, Sarkozy argued, are now dangerously out of step with the times. Once in office, Sarkozy appointed a number

of youthful politicians to cabinet posts, including his 42-year-old protA[c]gA[c]e, Rachida Dati, as Justice minister. In Germany, 35-year-old Hubertus Heil has been making waves as general secretary of the Social Democratic Party, a post he has held since 2005.

In Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the post-boomer who leads the Social Democrats there, narrowly missed becoming that countryas first female prime minister in Novemberas elections. And in Sweden, post-boomer power is already a fact: Fredrik Reinfeldt, 42, was elected Swedenas prime minister in late 2006. In Russia, Dmitry Medvedev will also be 42 when he succeeds Vladimir Putin as his hand-picked successor in March. The age difference between the two is just 13 years, but the generational gap is enormous. Putin was born when Stalin was still alive, and was brought up as one of the last believers in communism and the greatness of the Soviet empire; Medvedev grew up in a family of intellectuals and was still a student in liberal Leningrad when every intelligent young person in the country was picking those orthodoxies apart.