Since becoming leader of the British Conservatives last December, David Cameron, who is still under 40, has spoken amazingly little about foreign affairs.
No doubt this has been because he was totally inexperienced in such matters, and partly because in William Hague, his shadow foreign secretary and former Conservative leader, he has an impressive and well-informed colleague. But foreign issues have been making the front pages of British newspapers as topics such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and international terrorism came to the fore.
The Conservatives have come under mild criticism for not taking foreign policy rather more seriously.
Like defense it had been a strong subject for the party in past years. Wisely, a small advisory group has been created to brief the Conservative leader and its membership is impressive.
It includes Lord Hurd, the former foreign secretary, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the former ambassador to Iraq, and Niall Fergusson, the TV historian. It was against this background that David Cameron made his first major speech on foreign affairs and defense on Sept. 11 in London.
That day, the fifth anniversary of the attacks on America, was a bad day to select.
I can only assume it was chosen to attract attention to his speech.
Lady Thatcher, the former Conservative prime minister, was in Washington by invitation of Vice President Dick Cheney.
She issued a statement through the White House putting across her strong view that Britain and America must not be divided over the war on terror.
Inevitably the British media highlighted the different approaches of Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron. Pointedly, David Cameron stated he was a liberal conservative and not a neoconservative, in a carefully considered attempt to distance his party a little from President George Bush and the delusions of his right-wing assistants.
This was a very good move and long overdue.
In terms of domestic politics it was important as the Bush administration is deeply unpopular with British voters and the Labour government is dangerously vulnerable on this issue. Poll after poll shows that Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair is thought to be far too close to George Bush.
At the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg the two had a private conversation that got picked up by a switched on microphone.
Lord Hurd later described their conversation as “creepy” which was a good word to use.
David Cameron thought Britain’s relationship with America at present was “slavish”.
It is just possible this speech will help put Britain’s important relationship with America — which David Cameron was at pains to emphasize — back on an even heel. The Conservative leader told his audience: “We have never, until recently, been uncritical allies of America ... I worry that we have recently lost the art.
I fear that if we continue as at present we may combine the maximum of exposure with the minimum of real influence over decisions.
The sooner we rediscover the right balance the better for Britain and our alliance.”
Such words will have been welcomed warmly not only by the foreign policy establishment but also by most politicians in London, where, for example, Blair’s decision not to support the international calls for a cease-fire in Lebanon and to support the Bush-Olmert line, was regarded as reckless and gravely damaging. At the heart of the so-called “liberal intervention” policy of the neoconservatives, which has been warmly embraced by Blair, is the belief that democracy can be imposed on the states of the Middle East by force of arms.
David Cameron, who voted for the war in Iraq with most of the Conservative parliamentary party — his friends claim today he had grave reservations at the time — now believes: “Liberty grows from the ground. It cannot be dropped from the air by an unmanned drone.”
He mentioned South Africa and India where change came about peacefully.
He went on: “Bombs and missiles are bad ambassadors. They win no hearts and minds; they can build no democracies. There are more tools of statecraft than military power.”
Cameron’s closest advisers will be well aware that President Bush will be out of the White House by January 2009.
They drafted for their boss a sound and balanced speech, and will know much hard work is now required on the details of a new Conservative foreign policy.
This speech put both Blair and his new and unimpressive Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett very much on the wrong foot.
The Conservatives have taken over from Labour in the opinion polls, and have a sporting chance of not just achieving a hung Parliament, with the Liberal Democrats holding the balance of power, but an outright win.
The Labour government has been coming apart at the seams. It could be Prime Minister David Cameron who deals with the next president of the United States.
