THE BLAIR SPECTATOR: The White Queens of Whitehall
Harris, Robin
THE BLAIR SPECTATOR ROBIN HARRIS The White Queens of Whitehall T HE ELECTION OF A SPANISH GOVERNMENT committed to pulling the country's troops out of Iraq has exposed how little faith the U.S....
...Germany is locked into a psychologically disturbed pacifism...
...MAY 2004 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 37...
...But the crucial element is Britain—Europe's only significant military power, sustained by Europe's only flourishing major economy...
...Blair's travails will certainly continue as he seeks to reconcile the irreconcilable...
...But what is far more important is that crises will continue to occur in NATO until the Anglo-American indulgence of Franco- German aspirations stops...
...Blair's embarrassed presence the supremacy of the Franco- German relationship over that with Britain...
...It was also (wrongly) argued by Mr...
...Of course, if Tony Blair wishes, like the White Queen, to believe six impossible things before breakfast, that is, in a sense, his affair...
...But Mr...
...Since the late 1980s, the key players in Europe have been single-mindedly pressing ahead with the creation of a counterweight to the United States...
...As a result, when the British Prime Minister gives assurances, these are now uniquely likely to be accepted in Washington...
...Tony Blair has striven to assure President Bush that Britain's involvement in the project of European integration presents no obstacle to the country's commitment to America and to an American-led NATO...
...The only problem was howto payfor it...
...They seem to assume that Britain will always remain America's chief cheerleader and staunchest ally...
...Thus in March he had himself invited to a Franco-German summit in Berlin, where he openly endorsed European "structured cooperation" on defense and tacitly supported FrancoGerman claims to EU leadership...
...We] will remain strong with both...
...Indeed, unease in Washington was allayed by the fact that European nations showed no signs of increasing their military spending to match their vaulting ambitions...
...America wants to believe that it has no truer friend than Tony Blair...
...But faced with the choice between siding with theU.S...
...For this he was rewarded with bitter denunciations from other EU countries and a superb snub from President Chirac, who proclaimed in Mr...
...The answer to this question is not to be found in Tony Blair's assurances, nor even in the interstices of the European Constitution—though Americans should be the last to minimize the effect of constitution-writing on the entities that engage in it...
...Benelux is insignificant...
...The policy required coalitions with other powers, and during the twentieth century the most important of these was America, which, of course, shared many of Britain's wider interests...
...Indeed, he has been prepared to alienate his own (and America's) European friends to do so...
...This, in short, is a Club that is Sovereign...
...But will the Brits be there when they are needed...
...Faced with the European allies' incompetence in the real Kosovo crisis the following year, the U.S...
...He gave assurances to the former but lent at least partial support to the latter...
...It was, after all, Mr...
...Blair's overriding aim since the end of hostilities in Iraq has been to restore good relations with Paris and Berlin...
...In their own interests, Americans should not believe it either...
...It is, though, the future framing of British foreign and defense policy that must primarily concern 36 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 2004 Washington's policy makers...
...Robin Harris was a member ofPrime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Policy Unit and is now consultant director of the London-based Politeia think tank...
...was understandably tolerant of the implied challenge...
...It already has its own currency...
...The British government has sought to portray this as a mere "tidying up" of existing provisions...
...France is a declining military force...
...Blair that strengthening the European element within NATO itself would reduce the EU's desire to become an independent military power outside it...
...To imagine that it is possible to be a good European—in the sense of endorsing EU ambitions—and at the same time to uphold U.S...
...Blair who, to general astonishment, unilaterally sought a special agreement on European defense with the French at Saint-Malo in December 1998...
...The EU was promised "assured access" to NATO's planning capacities, and there was a "presumption of availability" of NATO's common assets...
...Despite all the setbacks and irritations, Tony Blair still clings to his view that Britain must be a positive participant in all European developments...
...In the case of France, however, the impulse was viscerally anti-American and still represents a considered strategy of great power competition...
...But this will be an odd sort of club—one which makes laws binding on its members, which establishes a single foreign policy, and which entails "the progressive framing of a common defense policy...
...The most reliable guide to the future is, rather, what recent history tells us of the forces at work...
...Blair did as he always does...
...It achieved this usually by peaceful but on occasion by military means...
...And if Tony Blair has his way, Britain will ditch sterling to become part of that...
...Thus the EU will have its own planning capability, and the other proposals will doubtless resurface shortly...
...It also reinforces the importance of Britain to the United States...
...Thus, for example, he recently protested: "There are people who want to pull me away from Europe, and people who want to ROBIN HARRIS pull me away from America...
...Blair must be the only European leader to believe this...
...Spain is unreliable...
...Britain's foreign secretary Jack Straw, has even reassuringly suggested a comparison with the alteration of rules applying to a golf club...
...The Europeans went ahead with creating a rapid reaction force of 60,000 personnel—in short, a Euro-army by any other name...
...In the case of Germany, the movement was, initially at least, benevolent and defensive: the Germans after reunification merely wanted a comfortable place in the sun...
...Washington fails to grasp that Mr...
...0 - NE MIGHT HAVE THOUGHT that the British Prime Minister's faith in the Europeans' commitment to the transatlantic relationship would be shaken by their response to the Iraq war...
...Over the centuries, Britain's policy towards Europe traditionally aimed at preventing a hostile power coming to dominate the continent...
...This strategy is now in ruins, for the simple reason that relations with individual European states are about to become subordinate to relations with a single European mega-state...
...leadership of an effective NATO is, though, an absurdity with far-reaching consequences...
...It will have its own government, it will pursue its own international goals, and it will fight its wars with its own army...
...He and President Chirac, who doubtless couldn't believe his luck, called for the EU to acquire an independent capacity for military action, in order to respond to hypothetical military crises...
...The Italians (probably) and the new democracies (enthusiastically) will support an American lead, if it is resolute...
...A variety of European bit part players went along with the project, either because they had special interests in play, or because they just were too weak to oppose...
...A glance at what is actually happening in Europe should be enough to arouse suspicion...
...Accordingly, by the so-called "Berlin Plus" arrangements, NATO has since bent over backwards to accommodate European amour propre...
...Blair's heartfelt response to the attacks of September 2001 and his willingness to commit British troops to the war against Saddam have won him unprecedented trust...
...Neither Britain nor the United States can afford them...
...or with the Old European Gang of Four, Mr...
...Similarly, the decision in April last year by the leaders of France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg to set up a joint military command, a separate headquarters, a special rapid reaction force, a European armaments agency, and a European defense college should have sent an unmistakable signal...
...But in one respect at least they should not be...
...But it was not enough...
...The European Union is, after all, currently engaged in the process of forming the constitution of a new European mega-state...
...Such appeasement, in any case, makes no sense...
...This, in turn, explains why, despite his affection for the United States, he continues to pursue policies in Europe that manifestly challenge and potentially damage America...
...Unfortunately for both Britain and America, Tony Blair refuses to face up to this reality...
...can place in its continental European allies...
...In these circumstances, a choice has to be made by Britain as to whether to be in or out...
Vol. 37 • May 2004 • No. 4
