Foreign Policy: The Iraq War of 2003

Abstract

On 12 May 1997, ten days after New Labour’s landslide general election victory, Robin Cook outlined a new, ethical foreign policy. This approach was based on the assumption that nation states are interdependent, and set out four main goals. Cook’s first three objectives, which committed the government to the promotion of Britain’s security and prosperity, and to the improvement of the quality of life of its citizens, were widely accepted. However, the fourth goal — to ‘secure the respect of other nations for Britain’s contribution to keeping the peace of the world and promoting democracy around the world’ — was more contentious, founded as it was on the claim that Britain has a national interest in promoting ‘our’ values abroad. As Cook explained, ‘the Labour Government does not accept that political values can be left behind when we check in our passports to travel on diplomatic business’, and for this reason must act to ‘support the demands of other peoples for the democratic rights on which we insist for ourselves’ (1997, pp. 1–2).