Tony Blair Interventionism

Three core elements of Tony Blair’s 10-year tenure were an activist philosophy of

1. ‘Interventionism’

2. Preserving the strong alliance with the US

3. and positioning Britain at the heart of Europe.

Whereas the ‘special relationship’ and the Britain’s role in Europe have been central to British foreign policy since World War 2, interventionism is arguably a new element.

The advent of this interventionist policy was triggered by the 1999 Kosovo war. At the same time he made he made his now famous ‘Chicago speech’, which unveiled a ‘doctrine of the international community’. The events of 11th September 2001, however created a context in which the emerging concept of ‘humanitarian intervention’ was affected by the perceived imperatives of

While at the White House, President Bill Clinton, he strongly advanced the idea of Britain as a ‘bridge’ between the US and Europe. Albeit having a similar ideological approach to things, Blair and Clinton weren’t always on the same page, for example over the Kosovo crisis. Lord Guthrie, who served as the senior UK military officer under both Major and Blair and so is uniquely qualified to speak to this comparison, suggests that Blair took a “much more forward leaning role” than his predecessor, and was, even prior to the Kosovo conflagration, “prepared and anxious that we should send our special forces out and capture war criminals who were actually being a malign influence on society”. Blair, Guthrie confirms, was “prepared to go in unilaterally”, and was frustrated both by the caution of the Americans and the torturous processes inherent in NATO decision making. He took bold decisions, and took them

Successive governments have sought to respond to the blurring of the division between ‘foreign’ and ‘domestic issues’, and the revolution in communications. There were significant implications for the Foreign Commonwealth Offices’ overseas network as efforts were made to create more ‘joined up government’.

This is witnessed by the creation of the Department for International Development. This shifted the global development policy away from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to an independent ministry with a Cabinet-level minister, perhaps signifying a more centralized form of power.

During his time Blair also introduced, a public sector management philosophy that placed much greater emphasis on detailed target-setting and other means of measuring performance. These were loosely linked to a series of ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’ agendas. Public Service Agreements, Strategic Priorities and White Papers became an important part of the Foreign Policy lexicon albeit with a lot of