New and Distinctive Set of Values Essay Example for Free

brisk and characteristic Set of Values EssayTo what extent and for what reasons did untried elbow grease succeed in introducing a bran-new and distinctive set of values to the conduct of Britains external relations mingled with 1997 and 2010?IntroductionAs John Rentoul has observed in his biography of Tony Blair, Prime Ministers always run their own exotic indemnity (Rentoul, 2001 420). This was certainly true of Tony Blair and radical roil. That itself is a reason why Britains external relations in the shape of refreshed aims alien polity can only be mightily understood by reference to the conflicting policy philosophy espoused by Blair and his response to world events during his lead over three bounds in office. In newfangled parturiencys third term (2005-10) the interventionist policy that dominated the previous two terms qwas an important hangover even to Gordon browns premiership, although, ultimately Browns period as leader was dominated by the global fussy crisis.On the eve of the get ships companys 1997 choice victory John Majors button-down political science had little credibility with the Clinton administration in Washington or with europiuman governments (Wallace, 2005 54). This was a position that the new Prime Minister, Tony Blair wanted to address. At the Lord Mayors Banquet on 10 November 1997 Blair set out five guiding lights on atomic number 63 including being a lead-in partner in Europe. He postulated that the single currency would be good for the EU (Lord Mayors Banquet, 1997). For Blair, British foreign policy should aim to be strong in Europe and strong with the US and that Britain was the bridge between the US and Europe (Lord Mayors Banquet, 1997).At the same venue, on 22 November 1999, Blair implicitly invoked Winston Churchills three circles principle that conjured up Britains relationship with the Commonwealth, the finicky relationship with the United States and the European proportionality. According to Churchill Britain was the pivot rough whom these relationships were to exist. Blair, accepting that the British Commonwealth was a lost Empire argued that Britains role was that of a opposite power, as a power that was at the crux of the alliances andinternational politics which shape the world and its time to come (Lord Mayors Banquet, 1997).The intention in this essay is to pore on certain fundamental aspects of stark naked fag foreign policy that impacted on British relationships with Europe and the World at large. The primary focus go away be on the so-called Blair Effect simply because, as Prime Minister, he was pivotal to the raw Labour philosophy.EuropeAs Anne Deighton has observed both the Labour and buttoned-down parties at various clock have suffered internal dissension over the European Union (EU) (Deighton, 2007 307). The focus of the Labour 1997 general election campaign on Europe was one where the Labour manifesto promised to give Britain the leadership in Europe which Britain and Europe need (Labour-party, 1997). It was important for the Labour party to highlight its commitment to Europe, in seam to the tensions indoors the Conservative party. Europe apart, however, the 1997 election campaign did non highlight significant differences between the Labour and Conservative parties. in that respect was an expectation that there would be considerable continuity in foreign affairs in the event of a change of government (Wickham-Jones, 2000 8).Subsequently, in the course of naked Labours prime(prenominal) term in office Blair made regular pronouncements about Britains role in Europe. There was action as well as rhetoric. Shortly after taking office Britain ended its opt-out from the loving chapter of the Maastricht Treaty and signed up to the increased EU powers enshrined in the Amsterdam Treaty. British presidency of the EU provided a ready political program for Britain to pursue an enlargement agenda. The St Malo summit in Decemb er 1998 provided Blair with a platform to collaborate with President Jacques Chirac of France to promote an Anglo-French initiative on European defence (fco.gov, 1998).This European Security and defense force Policy (ESDP) has been described as part of arguably the most pro-active upstream period of the Labour governments utilitarian supranationalism (Bulmer, 2008 602). Notwithstanding Blairs pivotal rolein the creation of the ESDP, it has been argued that, in proportion to Conservative policy on European Security and Defence, the Blair approach was less a seismic deepen in British policy, and more of a change of strategy (Dryburgh, 2010 271). The essential change, in comparison to the Conservative party approach was one where Blair was prepared to adopt a leadership role in contrast to the former John Major governments focus of diverting attention away from EU initiatives, and in the sequel of defence, a focus on the strengthening of NATO (Dryburgh, 2010 267-268).The relationsh ip between Blair and Gordon Brown was similarly relevant to the New Labour approach to Europe. On 27 October 1997 Gordon Brown announced the governments policy on the Euro. This consisted on a three pronged policy that back offed (a) a sure-fire single currency, (b) that was constitutionally acceptable but (c) had to satisfy five economic tests (hm-treasury, 2008). This approach was allied to a commitment to hold a referendum on membership of the Euro. The key determinant (Bulmer, 2008 601) of this policy was the economic tests that include whether joining the Euro would be good for employment. In the event, during Labours second term, on 9 June 2003 Gordon Brown announced that only one test was met that relating to a beneficial impact on UK financial serve a result that removed joining the Euro from the political agenda and, in a real sense, reduce New Labours pronouncements on the Euro as posturing and meaningless rhetoric.The reality of New Labours European strategy was no t to alienate the support base that ultimately mattered the British electorate. The UK was a Euro-sceptic member state of the EU and a UK governments EU policy could not puke at risk a parliamentary majority. The decoupling of the single currency allied to the promise of a referendum in that first term became a legacy of New Labour that has now achieved a degree of permanence that has survived through and beyond the 2010 election.The Blair and New Labour momentum on Europe stalled after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. The focus on the fight on terror and the transatlantic alliance that was nurtured by the 9/11 attacks became an all encompassing distraction with the result that Europe has been a central bereavement of his (Blairs) premiership (Riddell, 2005 383).Ethical foreign policyOn 12 May 1997 the then Foreign Secretary robin redbreast Cook declared that foreign policy must have an honourable dimension and must support the demands of different people for the democrat ic rights on which we insist for ourselves (Rentoul, 2001 421). Cook denied ever using the phrase honorable foreign policy or that there would be an ethical foreign policy (Wickam-Jones, 2000 29). What is undeniable is that New Labour, through Cook, viewed human rights as a central plank of foreign policy because human rights were rights we train for ourselves and which we therefore have a duty to defend for those who do not get to enjoy them (Wickham-Jones, 2000 11).This ethical dimension served to identify clear blue water between New Labours foreign policy and previous administrations, including previous Labour governments (Little, 2000 4). Furthermore, although the concept of an ethical dimension was articulated by Cook, it chimed with Blairs third way in the sense that globalisation demanded an approach to the modern world that was qualitatively diametric from the past (Williams, 2010 54).The ethical dimension, however, was converted by media sources into an ethical foreign p olicy and served to create the sense that New Labour were introducing ethics to a sphere of government that was previously devoid of ethical commitments (Williams, 201057). Such a lofty ambition was impossible to achieve in the real political world. This philosophy created a platform on which criticism could be levelled to contrast the reality with the aspiration, for example, in connection with the arms trade where New Labour continued a policy that was a highly permissive approach to exports (Cooper, 2001 73). The ethical dimension strategy became a millstone (Williams, 2010 61) around the Foreign Secretarys neck. It is worthy of note that the New Labour manifesto for the 2001 general election with its foreign policy focus on Britain strong in the world (REF) was designed to herald a change in focus.Kosovo and beyond.Blairs Chicago speech (number-10.gov, 1999) on 22 April 1999 was an important landmark in New Labours external relationships. It represented a key moment in the histo ry of liberal interventionist discourse (Daddow, 2009 549). Active involvement in other peoples conflicts was justified if five considerations were satisfied, including exhausting all diplomatic options and being sure of the case for intervention. This interventionist approach relied on the notion that there was a moral dimension to international action that did not depend on the norms of international law. The backdrop to the speech was what Blair described as a just war in Kosovo that was based not on any territorial ambitions but on values.Blairs spate of success whereby an international force would enter Kosvo and allow refugees to return to their homes was ultimately realised. His strident crusade to produce NATO and the US President Clinton into action was seen as a triumph that earned him great respect with so many of the world leaders (Rentoul, 2001).Following the September 11 attacks Blair reinforced his interventionist stance at the Labour Party Conference (2001) by decl aring that, along with the United States, Britain had a duty to protect the rights of citizens of other states, including those of the sheepskin coat people. On this approach, the carpet-bombing of Afghanistan could be claimed to be an action undertaken on behalf of Afghan citizens (Chandler, 2003 307). What this policy omits is any real utilisation with the Afghan people themselves and, at its crudest, becomes a recipe for innocent collateral loss of life.Iraq became the yardstick against which New Labours foreign policy particularly during its second term and the Blair legacy has come to be judged. Iraq was inextricably tied in with the so-called special relationship between Britain and the US and the humanitarian interventionist policy. The special relationship was not new and even today the special relationship has a political and ideological superstructure and an embedded military and intelligence structure (Wallace, 2009 263). Yet under Blair there was unconditional support for the scouring administrations desire to invade Iraq. Although the so-called poodle Theory might be simple andat best, overstated (Azubuike, 2005 137)Blair was prepared to join Bush in pursuing a disastrous and illegal campaign (Azubuike, 2005 137). Robin Cook perhaps best summarised the flaw in Blairs approach in explaining that by becoming a trusty partner of the most reactionary US Administration in modern time such an unlikely alliance would cause disruption in his own party (Cook, 2003 2). The New Labour interventionist approach to conflict justified by humanitarian concerns that had proved successful in the past left a legacy that turned to ashes the Blair/New Labour vision of Britain that visualised dissemination good around the world (Toynbee and Walker, 2005 p194).Gordon Brown as Prime Minister had to maintain the line that Blairs foreign policy initiatives were justified because, as a central figure in New Labour he could not detach himself from the major foreign p olicy goals pursued by New Labour and Blair. Iraq and Afghanistan required to be managed.ConclusionThe blueprint for New Labour external relations with a focus on leadership in Europe and an ethical dimension to world events in New Labours first term promised much, but by the third term was transformed into one where Europe became an intractable problem clouded by immigration and euro-scepticism. Furthermore, in Europe the New Labour policy of stringent economic tests became an agenda for non-entry to the euro.The New Labour policy of interventionism overlooked the fundamental truth that when it in reality mattered in Iraq and Afghanistan winning the war in a military sense became irrelevant if peace could not be secured thereafter. A humanitarian agenda without a secure peace becomes an agenda that lacks real morality. New Labour began with a positive external relations agenda that promised much but ultimately failed to deliver.BibliographyAzubuike, J. 2005. The Poodle Theory and the Anglo-American Special Relationship internationalist studies, 42(2), pp. 123-139.Bulmer, S. 2008. New Labour, New European Policy? Blair, Brown and utile Supranationalism, Parliamentary Affairs, 61(4), pp. 597-620.Chandler, D. 2003. Rhetoric without responsibility the attraction of ethical foreign policy, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 5(3), pp. 295-316.Cook, R. 2004. The Point of Departure, Diaries from the Front Bench. capital of the United Kingdom Simon and Schuster UK Ltd.Cooper, N. 2000, Arms Exports New Labour and the Pariah Agenda, Contemporary Security Policy, 21(3), pp. 54-77.Daddow, O. 2009. Tonys war? Blair, Kosovo and the interventionist impulse in British foreign policy, International Affairs, 85(3), pp. 547-560.Deighton, A. 2001. European Union Policy. In A Seldon, ed. 2001. The Blair London Little, Brown and Company. Ch.15.Dryburgh, L. 2010. Blairs First Government (1997-2001) and European Security and Defence Policy unstable Shift or Adaptation?, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 12(2), pp. 257-273Labour party manifesto, 1997. file away of Labour Party Manifestos. online. Available at http//www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml Accessed on 7 December 2014.Rentoul, J., 2001. Tony Blair, Prime Minister London Little, Brown and Company.Riddell, P. 2005. Europe. In A. Seldon and D. Kavanagh, ed. 2005. The Blair Effect 2001-5, Cambridge Cambridge University Press. Ch.16.Wallace, W. 2005. The collapse of British foreign policy, International Affairs, 82(1), pp. 53-68.Wallace, W. and Phillips, C. 2009. Reassessing the special relationship, International Affairs, 85(2), pp. 263-284.Whitman, G. R. The long horse After the Storm? Foreign and Security Policy from Blair to Brown, Parliamentary Affairs, 63(4), pp. 834-848.Wickham-Jones, M. 2000. Labours trajectory in foreign affairs the moral crusade of a pivotal power? In R. Little and M. Wickham-Jones, ed. 2000. New Labours Foreign Policy, Manchester Manchester University Press. Ch.1.Williams, P. 2010. The Rise and Fall of the Ethical Dimension Presentation and Practice in New Labours Foreign Policy, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 15(1), pp. 53-63.