The Foreign Service Journal, April 2004

B OOKS The Loyal Opposition? The Point of Departure Robin Cook, Simon & Schuster, 2003, $27.00, hardcover, 365 pages. R EVIEWED BY H ARRY C. B LANEY III Robin Cook’s The Point of Depar- ture offers valuable insights into Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government on several levels. Cook may not be famil- iar to most American readers, but he was British Foreign Minister and Leader of theHouse of Commons until resigning over the decision to go to war with Iraq last year. As one would expect from a politi- cian with those credentials, his memoir provides a front-row view of the self- destructive quality of internal Labor Party politics. But perhaps more importantly, he offers a critique of the profound debate taking place in Britain about its role in world affairs, its future in Europe, and the nature of its rela- tionship with the United States. Britain and America are both trying to deal with their own “intelligence scandal.” For the U.S., the controversy is over a massive intelligence failure, and a White House, if former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill is to be believed, bent on invading Iraq regardless of intelligence evidence. In the British case Tony Blair had the good sense to call for a judicial inquiry, and even pub- licly testified before it. Cook sees these vital issues through the prism of his anger over the overall direction of the Labor Party, his ambiva- lent feelings about theman who pushed him aside as foreign minister, and his view that Britain’s future rests almost exclusively inEurope. He insists that he is not anti-American but simply oppos- es President Bush and his policies. However, he is scathing about the neo- cons in the Bush administration and their “determined unilateralism.” These biases periodically color his analysis. For instance, he clearly expected that the judicial inquiry into the British government’s handling of prewar intelligence would bring the prime minister down a few notches; instead, Lord Hutton’s report largely exonerated Blair. Similarly, Cook in- sists that the Iraq decision destroyed Britain’s role as a “respected major player in Europe,” but such dire con- sequences have not materialized. Despite such lapses, however, Cook writes powerfully about the very real contradictions involved in 10 Downing Street’s handling of Iraq and the prob- lematic state of current U.S.-Europe relations (as well as many domestic issues beyond the scope of this review). Understandably, most of the public- ity about the book (on this side of the “pond,” anyway) has centered on the Iraq controversy. As Cook lucidly explains, the war debate has had major ramifications for Blair’s survival as prime minister, for the British public’s long-term attitudes toward America, and for those worried about U.S. poli- cies that are weakening ties with our closest allies. The other major question this book takes up is Britain’s role as a mediator between America and Eur- ope. Cook says up front that “Blair is arguably the most pro-European prime minister in modern times, cer- tainly since Edward Heath.” Yet Cook appears neither to understand nor accept the central calculation underpinning Blair’s position on Iraq: that Britain must not be placed in a position of having to choose between its ties across the Atlantic and across the Channel, thereby losing its role as an honest broker with both. For- tunately, it seems unlikely that Britain will lose that role so long as it has as smart, strong and determined a leader as Blair. Would that America could make the same claim. This useful book is a kind of mirror to ourselves, holding up to us a view of our role in the world, the widespread perception that our unilateralism and triumphalism constitute hubris, and the importance of tough outside criticism. In that regard, it deserves to be read in tandem with Paul O’Neill’s (and Ron Suskind’s) The Price of Loyalty , which covers some of the same ground. Retired FSO Harry Blaney is president of the Coalition for American Leader- ship Abroad (COLEAD). A former Visiting Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, he was in London in March 2003 when the Blair govern- Cook writes powerfully about the very real contradictions involved in 10 Downing Street’s handling of Iraq and the problematic state of current U.S.-Europe relations. 66 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 4