Speech Seen as Signal of British Foreign Policy Shift
A speech given by a British official in Washington this week is being described as an indication of the change that new Prime Minister Gordon Brown will bring to his country's relationship with the United States.
The Guardian reports that Douglas Alexander, the British trade and development secretary, called on the U.S. to "change its priorities and said a country's strength should no longer be measured by its destructive military power." Speaking Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations, he said:
"In the 20th century a country's might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st century strength should be measured by what we can build together. And so we must form new alliances, based on common values, ones not just to protect us from the world, but ones which reach out to the world." He described this as "a new alliance of opportunity."
The BBC reports that Alexander, who once worked as an aide in the U.S. Congress, was careful to state the importance of the U.S.-UK relationship. But he also said it was time for the U.S. and its allies to "recognize the importance of a rules based international system."
Although the speech has been portrayed as the signal of a policy shift, David Blair, diplomatic correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, writes that a certain amount of "wishful thinking" has crept into the analysis of the speech. In fact, he writes, it is a speech that could easily have been given by former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
2:58 PM ET | 07-13-2007 | permalink
