Gordon Brown favours policy of 'hard-headed internationalism'

Nov 13, 2007, 13:16 GMT

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown prepares to lay a wreath at the Remembrance Sunday service held at the Cenotaph on London\'s Whitehall, Britain, 11 November 2007. EPA/RICHARD LEWIS

London - Five months after taking over the reins of government from Tony Blair, Britain's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown has replaced the concept of old-fashioned conflict intervention by what he terms 'hard-headed internationalism.'

Brown's new catchphrase to define Britain's approach to foreign policy in the 21st-century is interpreted by commentators in London as a clear attempt to distance Britain from the 'tarnished liberal interventionism' promoted by Blair in close alliance with US President George W Bush.

By bidding farewell to unilateralism and isolationism, while at the same time stressing the paramount importance of relations between Britain and the US, Brown had left 'Blair's demons behind,' the Guardian said.

The Daily Telegraph believes that Brown has opted for a 'third way between the traditional anti-Americanism of the Labour Party and the pro-Bush neo-imperialism of Tony Blair.'

Brown, who declared himself a 'lifelong friend of America' in his first major foreign policy speech Monday evening, 'is more JFK than GWB,' The Daily Telegraph said.

Commentators noted that, while threatening Iran with 'worldwide sanctions,' Brown mentioned the conflict in Iraq only in passing, and made no reference at all to Islam, the so-called 'war on terror,' or the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the US.

'It was as though with Brown we have now left the immediate post- 9/11 era behind us,' the Guardian said. 'Britain must never be forced to choose between its transatlantic and its European alliances,' the paper added.

'My approach is hard-headed internationalism - internationalist because global challenges need global solutions and nations must cooperate across borders - often with hard-headed intervention,' Brown said.

'Hard-headed because we will not shirk from the difficult long- term decisions and because only through reform of our international rules and institutions will we achieve concrete, on-the-ground results.'

Brown's key emphasis is on the urgent need to reform international institutions, from the United Nations to the G8 and the World Bank, and to turn them into tools in the policy of 'hard-headed internationalism.'

Unlike Blair, Brown did not attach an 'exclusive' label to relations between Britain and the US, but actively supported cooperation between Europe and the US in what he described as a 'network of alliances.'

He explicitly welcomed the importance of close relations now being forged with the US by the new government in France, as well as Germany and the EU, as a development which was 'good for the wider world.'

Rather than seeing Britain as a 'bridge' between the US and Europe, the 'coded message is there is room for other partners,' the Telegraph said.

However, commentators noted that Brown's enthusiasm for cooperation with fellow-European governments remained as 'muted as ever.'

The Independent said it welcomed Brown's efforts to place a subtle distance between Britain and the United States.

'But unless this is accompanied by a new willingness to work with EU governments and institutions, he risks isolating Britain on the international scene,' the paper said.