The new labour governments and Britain’s role in the world

Abstract

New Labour came to office in 1997 promising far-reaching change to every aspect of UK politics, including Britain’s role in the world (Blair 1997a). By extending the ‘third way’ domestic agenda to the international sphere (Wheeler and Dunne 1998; Vickers 2000), it was hoped that the damage done to Britain’s role under the Conservatives, primarily as a result of the UK’s part in the collective international failure in the former Yugoslavia (Simms 2000), could be swiftly repaired. Britain under New Labour was to be a ‘pivotal power,’ a ‘transatlantic bridge,’ and, infamously, its foreign policy was to contain an ‘ethical dimension’ (Cook 1997b). Yet while the New Labour years were nothing if not eventful in foreign policy terms, including five major military engagements (Kampfner 2003), it remains an open question as to whether the new government’s lofty rhetoric was matched by substantive change, or whether, as some commentators have argued, New Labour’s foreign policy was more an adaptation to a changed international context than a genuine transformation (Dryburgh 2010). This chapter therefore sets out to answer a deceptively simple question: Did New Labour really manage to alter Britain’s role in the world?.