Britain Between the U.S. and Europe
GELB, NORMAN
CARRINGTON'S BALANCING ACT Britain Between the US* and Europe ^normangelb London The traditional display of un-flappability at the British Foreign Office conceals a measure of apprehension these...
...Indeed, many foreign ministeries could profit from a close look at British diplomatic skills...
...Nevertheless, by shrewdly playing the field Carrington has done what former Prime Minister Harold Wilson sought in vain to do: He has put Britain "at the top table" in world affairs...
...In contrast to early French and German caution, he also has spoken out against the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan from the beginning...
...normally win acclaim for an international statesman...
...On its own, especially given its formidable domestic economic problems, Britain would find itself with considerably less leverage in international politics...
...Nevertheless, any major shift in her "both America and Europe" policy is unlikely in the foreseeable future...
...Meanwhile Lord Carrington, who helped resolve the Zimbabwe conundrum, has set about reasserting the British presence in international affairs...
...To be sure, Carrington's position on the Middle East is strengthened by Britain's membership in the European Community, and his position on Afghanistan is bolstered by the British-American special relationship...
...Whether the European Community countries will be able to carry out their promise not to let internal differences impede the development of a common foreign policy remains to be seen...
...That is not a conclusion the British would relish...
...Thatcher is not the sort readily to change course and, despite the vagaries of the British cabinet system of government, no one is in a position to challenge her...
...The big test for the Foreign Office lies ahead, though, as pressures mount inside the Western Alliance...
...All this may of course change once Muskie settles in at Foggy Bottom, and following meetings with his counterparts at such places as last month's nato conference in Brussels...
...The Tory-oriented London Daily Telegraph, for example, has declared, "it is more than ever necessary that . . . Britain, France and West Germany bestir themselves to provide the strong leadership which the alliance is lacking...
...And that might happen: President Valery Giscard d'Estaing has refused to engage in any more "haggling" over Britain's Common Market contribution, and Thatcher says she is not finished yet...
...Their good relations with Bonn are not as important to West Germany as the Bonn-Paris entente— and England's relations with France are abysmal...
...continues to falter, however, the Foreign Office may increasingly follow the pattern already suggested in the case of the Arab-Israeli dispute and place greater stress on issues where American and British policies diverge...
...The appointment of Senator Edmund S. Muskie as Secretary of State was well received here, mitigating regret at the resignation of Cyrus Vance...
...If the U.S...
...The tidy balancing act that has produced Britain's diplomatic revival is worthy of study in college courses on international relations...
...The dispute over Common Market finances is largely responsible for this, but the roots go deeper...
...It is believed that if Helmut Schmidt is reelected next autumn, and if the sounds emanating from Washington are still those of an uncertain trumpet, the West German Chancellor might find himself at the head of an almost independent Europe...
...foreign policy...
...The Foreign Secretary has taken a strong pro-Palestinian stance in the Arab-Israeli dispute, downplaying the Camp David agreements...
...Concern persists in London that at a time when the West must be prepared to deal with a new Soviet expansionism led by a new generation of Kremlin leaders, foreign policy frustrations and internal economic difficulties may prompt the U.S...
...The hope here is that the United States will recover its confidence and that Muskie will emerge as a statesman of vision and fortitude...
...True, Britain seems more aware than its neighbors that, carried to extremes, consultation of this kind could amount to abdication of leadership...
...British leaders are generally agreed that in stressing the Iran hostage issue over Afghanistan, President Carter got his priorities wrong...
...Still, there is no denying that the image of America has suffered grievously in Britain...
...When he was the Prime Minister in the early 1970s, Edward Heath sought to dispel this image...
...Having decided on a program of action, Mrs...
...Much more, in fact, has been written about the likelihood that Muskie will trim Presidential adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski's sails (Carter has "set a Pole to catch a Pole," quipped the Guardian) than about the new Secretary's attitude toward the major international issues...
...Like everybody else in this part of the world, the British are worried about the strains on the Western Alliance in the wake of recent international upheavals...
...Not for nothing do U.S...
...Moreover, Whitehall's "boxing clever" policy could result in Britain ending up irreconcilably at odds with its European partners and linked across the Atlantic in a special relationship of limited practical value...
...Partly, too, she is motivated by the conviction that the special link would assure her country's being less isolated if the row with the Common Market took an even nastier turn...
...Thatcher has worked hard to reconstruct the image of a British-American "special relationship" partly because she firmly believes in it...
...By spurning such a stance and consistently siding with the U.S., Mrs...
...The British, along with the other allies, have impressed on Washington their desire for closer consultation on major American moves that might have international repercussions...
...But fundamental questions about what the Western Alliance will look like when it emerges from the current uncertainties—questions that have a particular relevance for Whitehall—will persist...
...Locked in a tough struggle with the rest of the European Community over budgets and finances, Britain is trying not to leave itself exposed on the international scene...
...State Department officials regularly drop in on London to confer with their British counterparts...
...CARRINGTON'S BALANCING ACT Britain Between the US* and Europe ^normangelb London The traditional display of un-flappability at the British Foreign Office conceals a measure of apprehension these days...
...One reason for this has been suggested by the Economist: "Jimmy Carter conducting foreign policy has always looked a bit like the man playing a fruit machine: he would pull the lever, the machine would tremble, oranges and lemons would whirr and flash, and that would be that...
...The London Times has complained that America has "no coherent plan" for dealing with world crisis, and a recent issue carried an article by the distinguished Italian journalist Arrigo Levi proposing that Washington "trilat-eralize" policy-making with Western Europe and Japan...
...Ever since the days of Charles de Gaulle, the French have resented London's close ties with Washington and have seen the British as the unwelcome spokesman for the U.S...
...At the official level here, at least, there is none of the barely disguised contempt for American leadership exhibited on the Quai d'Orsay, nor of the restrained exasperation manifested in Bonn at America's handling of the crises in Iran and Afghanistan...
...Thatcher has confirmed the French view that they simply cannot trust "perfidious Albion...
...But the qualities attributed to Muskie in the British press—political moderation, a fierce temper and influence in Congress—are hardly the ones that Norman Gelb, a frequent New Leader contributor, reports from London for the Mutual Broadcasting System...
...in Europe...
...But Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has made it clear that, while Britain may not see eye-to-eye with Washington on the handling of certain issues, her government sympathizes with and supports the main thrust of U.S...
...perhaps, occasionally, a coin would tinkle out, but usually not...
...At the same time, the British are carefully monitoring political developments in West Germany...
...he minimized the special relationship with Washington and emphasized his European identity and aspirations...
...Anxiety about international dangers, in other words, is exacerbated by anxiety over this country's future international position...
...to turn increasingly inward...
...Reflecting the un-publicized opinions of many senior British diplomats, even newspapers that have consistently stressed the central importance of the United States in the Western Alliance now openly deprecate the power and the glory on the far side of the Atlantic...
Vol. 63 • June 1980 • No. 10
