'When the shooting starts': Atlanticism in British security strategy

International Affairs

Volumn 80, Issue 5, 2004, Pages

  Dunne, Tim ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EXETER   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 19644365435     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2004.00424.x     Document Type: Review

References (85)

1. Quoted in Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay, America unbound: the Bush revolution in foreign policy (Washington: Brookings Institution, 2003), p. 5.
2. John Kampfner, Blair's wars (London: Free Press, 2004), p. 9.
3. Kampfner's calculation, writing in 2003, is 'five times in six years': Iraq (1998 and 2003), Kosovo (1999), Sierra Leone (2000) and Afghanistan (2002). If Kampfner's broad definition of war is used, then his list is incomplete. It ought to include deployments to the INTERFET operation in East Timor (1999) and the participation in the EU-led peace support operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2003). I am grateful to Paul Williams for pointing this out.
4. At the time when the House of Commons passed a motion in favour of going to war, MORI published a poll that found 67% of those surveyed opposed war if there were no second UN resolution, and if the UN inspectors did not find 'proof' that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction. Had both these conditions been present, 74% would have favoured war. MORI poll, 17 March 2003. Sample: 968 British adults interviewed 14-16 March 2003. At http://www.mori.com/polls/2003/iraq3.shtml.
5. Tony Blair's words: BBC News, 6 Sept. 2002, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/~1/hi/uk_politics/2239887.stm.
6. 'Atlanticism' is a term with many meanings. In debates about security among NATO's European members, Atlanticists are those countries that view the Atlantic alliance as the primary institutional referent, and Europeanists those that want the EU to have greater autonomy in defence and security. See e.g. Stuart Croft, Jolyon Howarth, Terry Terriff and Mark Weber, 'NATO's triple challenge', International Affairs 76: 3, 2000, p. 506. In discussion connected to these debates but teaching beyond them, Atlanticism is sometimes used as a shorthand for the transatlantic security architecture. See Ivo H. Daalder, 'The end of Atlanticism', Survival 45: 2, 2003, pp. 147-66. The present article uses the term in a third sense, in which it has long been associated with those in the Labour Party, from Ernest Bevin to Tony Blair, who favour the bilateral relationship with the United States above all others when forced to make a choice. Rhiannon Vickers, The Labour party and the world: the evolution of Labour's foreign policy 1900-1951 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), p. 12.
7. 'Atlanticism' is a term with many meanings. In debates about security among NATO's European members, Atlanticists are those countries that view the Atlantic alliance as the primary institutional referent, and Europeanists those that want the EU to have greater autonomy in defence and security. See e.g. Stuart Croft, Jolyon Howarth, Terry Terriff and Mark Weber, 'NATO's triple challenge', International Affairs 76: 3, 2000, p. 506. In discussion connected to these debates but teaching beyond them, Atlanticism is sometimes used as a shorthand for the transatlantic security architecture. See Ivo H. Daalder, 'The end of Atlanticism', Survival 45: 2, 2003, pp. 147-66. The present article uses the term in a third sense, in which it has long been associated with those in the Labour Party, from Ernest Bevin to Tony Blair, who favour the bilateral relationship with the United States above all others when forced to make a choice. Rhiannon Vickers, The Labour party and the world: the evolution of Labour's foreign policy 1900-1951 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), p. 12.
8. 'Atlanticism' is a term with many meanings. In debates about security among NATO's European members, Atlanticists are those countries that view the Atlantic alliance as the primary institutional referent, and Europeanists those that want the EU to have greater autonomy in defence and security. See e.g. Stuart Croft, Jolyon Howarth, Terry Terriff and Mark Weber, 'NATO's triple challenge', International Affairs 76: 3, 2000, p. 506. In discussion connected to these debates but teaching beyond them, Atlanticism is sometimes used as a shorthand for the transatlantic security architecture. See Ivo H. Daalder, 'The end of Atlanticism', Survival 45: 2, 2003, pp. 147-66. The present article uses the term in a third sense, in which it has long been associated with those in the Labour Party, from Ernest Bevin to Tony Blair, who favour the bilateral relationship with the United States above all others when forced to make a choice. Rhiannon Vickers, The Labour party and the world: the evolution of Labour's foreign policy 1900-1951 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), p. 12.
9. Raymond Aron, The imperial republic: the United States and the world 1945-1973 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975).
10. Steven Philip Kramer, 'Blair's Britain after Iraq', Foreign Affairs 82: 4, 2003, pp. 90-104.
11. Karl Marx put the relationship between structure and agency astutely: 'Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the past.' Marx, 'The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte', in The Marx-Engels reader, ed. Robert C. Tucker, 2nd edn (London: Norton, 1978), p. 595.
12. John E. Mueller, Retreat from doomsday: the obsolescence of major war (New York: Basic Books, 1989).
13. Robert O'Neill and David N. Schwartz, Hedley Bull on arms control (London: Macmillan, 1987), p. 11; John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of containment: a critical appraisal of postwar American national security policy (New York: Oxford, 1982), p. vii.
14. Robert O'Neill and David N. Schwartz, Hedley Bull on arms control (London: Macmillan, 1987), p. 11; John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of containment: a critical appraisal of postwar American national security policy (New York: Oxford, 1982), p. vii.
15. John Lewis Gaddis, 'A grand strategy', Foreign Policy, Nov.-Dec. 2002, p. 53.
16. For an excellent account of constitutive theorizing, see Alexander Wendt, 'On constitution and causation in international relations', in Tim Dunne, Michael Cox and Ken Booth, eds, The eighty years' crisis 1919-1999 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 101-17. Constructivist thinking in security studies is mapped out in Theo Farrell, 'Constructivist security studies: portrait of a research program', International Studies Review 4: 1, 2002, pp. 49-72. See also Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The culture of national security: norms and identity in world politics (Columbia, NY: Columbia University Press, 1996). For a brilliant application of constructivism, see Christian Reus-Smit, American power and world order (Cambridge: Polity, 2004). The overall argument in this article draws on insights in this book, albeit applied to a different context.
17. For an excellent account of constitutive theorizing, see Alexander Wendt, 'On constitution and causation in international relations', in Tim Dunne, Michael Cox and Ken Booth, eds, The eighty years' crisis 1919-1999 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 101-17. Constructivist thinking in security studies is mapped out in Theo Farrell, 'Constructivist security studies: portrait of a research program', International Studies Review 4: 1, 2002, pp. 49-72. See also Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The culture of national security: norms and identity in world politics (Columbia, NY: Columbia University Press, 1996). For a brilliant application of constructivism, see Christian Reus-Smit, American power and world order (Cambridge: Polity, 2004). The overall argument in this article draws on insights in this book, albeit applied to a different context.
18. For an excellent account of constitutive theorizing, see Alexander Wendt, 'On constitution and causation in international relations', in Tim Dunne, Michael Cox and Ken Booth, eds, The eighty years' crisis 1919-1999 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 101-17. Constructivist thinking in security studies is mapped out in Theo Farrell, 'Constructivist security studies: portrait of a research program', International Studies Review 4: 1, 2002, pp. 49-72. See also Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The culture of national security: norms and identity in world politics (Columbia, NY: Columbia University Press, 1996). For a brilliant application of constructivism, see Christian Reus-Smit, American power and world order (Cambridge: Polity, 2004). The overall argument in this article draws on insights in this book, albeit applied to a different context.
19. For an excellent account of constitutive theorizing, see Alexander Wendt, 'On constitution and causation in international relations', in Tim Dunne, Michael Cox and Ken Booth, eds, The eighty years' crisis 1919-1999 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 101-17. Constructivist thinking in security studies is mapped out in Theo Farrell, 'Constructivist security studies: portrait of a research program', International Studies Review 4: 1, 2002, pp. 49-72. See also Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The culture of national security: norms and identity in world politics (Columbia, NY: Columbia University Press, 1996). For a brilliant application of constructivism, see Christian Reus-Smit, American power and world order (Cambridge: Polity, 2004). The overall argument in this article draws on insights in this book, albeit applied to a different context.
20. Gaddis, Strategies, p. 36.
21. Ken Booth has been a persistent critic of strategy for its instrumentalism and its ethnocentrism. See Booth, Strategy and ethnocentrism (London: Croom Helm, 1979).
22. Quoted in Stanley Hoffmann, Duties beyond borders: on the limits and possibilities of ethical international politics (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1981), p. 197.
23. For applications of the game metaphor, see Karin Fierke, Changing games, changing strategies: critical investigations in security (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), and Nicholas J. Wheeler, Saving strangers: humanitarian intervention in international society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
24. For applications of the game metaphor, see Karin Fierke, Changing games, changing strategies: critical investigations in security (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), and Nicholas J. Wheeler, Saving strangers: humanitarian intervention in international society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
25. Quoted in Ethan B. Kapstein and Michael Mastanduno, eds, Unipolar politics: realism and state strategies after the Cold War (Columbia, NY: Columbia University Press, 1999), p. 143.
26. The original phrase 'the mission determines the coalition' was used by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (on 18 Oct. 2001) to refer to the US-led war on terror. He subsequently returned to it in order to clarify the room for manoeuvre that all states ought to preserve. Daalder, "The end of Atlanticism', p. 156.
27. This accords with Blair's view. See Tony Blair, 'Britain and the world', speech to the Foreign Office conference, London, 7 Jan. 2003, available at http://www.number-10-gov.uk/output/page1353.asp.
28. The literature on the special relationship is vast. See e.g. C. J. Bartlett, The special relationship: a political history of Anglo-American relations since 1945 (London: Longman, 1992); John Dumbrell, A special relationship: Anglo-American relations in the Cold War and after (London: Palgrave, 2001).
29. The literature on the special relationship is vast. See e.g. C. J. Bartlett, The special relationship: a political history of Anglo-American relations since 1945 (London: Longman, 1992); John Dumbrell, A special relationship: Anglo-American relations in the Cold War and after (London: Palgrave, 2001).
30. Tony Blair, speech in the House of Commons, 18 March 2003, p. 7.
31. Dominique de Villepin, quoted in Anand Menon, 'From crisis to catharsis: ESDP after Iraq', International Affairs 80: 4, 2004, p. 638.
32. For two bold accounts that portray Europe and the United States as being on different historical and cultural trajectories, see Robert Cooper, The breaking of nations: order and chaos in the twenty-first century (London: Atlantic Books, 2003), and Robert Kagan, Of paradise and power: America and Europe in the new world order (London: Atlantic Books, 2003).
33. For two bold accounts that portray Europe and the United States as being on different historical and cultural trajectories, see Robert Cooper, The breaking of nations: order and chaos in the twenty-first century (London: Atlantic Books, 2003), and Robert Kagan, Of paradise and power: America and Europe in the new world order (London: Atlantic Books, 2003).
34. 'National Security Strategy of the United States of America', 17 Sept. 2002, at http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nssall.html.
35. 'It would be difficult to overestimate the consternation provoked in European foreign policy circles by the publication of the Bush administration's National Security Strategy in 2002': John Peterson, 'America as a European power: the end of empire by integration', International Affairs 80: 4, 2004, p. 623.
36. Cooper, The breaking of nations, p. 165.
37. Christopher Hill identifies the connection between Cooper and the drafting of the ESS. He also provides background context for the publication, such as the fact that one of the main motivations behind the ESS was 'to convince the USA that Europe was not totally mired in delusional soft power thinking'. See his 'Britain and the European Security Strategy', unpublished paper, 18 May 2004, available at http://www.fornet.info/documents/Working%20Paper%20no%206.pdf, p. 2.
38. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued its document on UK international priorities: a strategy for the FCO in Dec. 2003, available at http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/FCOStrategyFullFinal.pdf.
39. The Strategic Defence Review: a new chapter, July 2002, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/SDR_New_Chapter.pdf; Delivering security in a changing world, Defence White Paper Cm 6041-1, Dec. 2003, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume2.pdf; Delivering security in a changing world: supporting essays, Dec. 2003, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume2.pdf. See also Select Committee on Defence, Fifth report on the Defence White Paper, June 2004, at http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmdfence/ 405/46502.htm.
40. The Strategic Defence Review: a new chapter, July 2002, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/SDR_New_Chapter.pdf; Delivering security in a changing world, Defence White Paper Cm 6041-1, Dec. 2003, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume2.pdf; Delivering security in a changing world: supporting essays, Dec. 2003, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume2.pdf. See also Select Committee on Defence, Fifth report on the Defence White Paper, June 2004, at http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmdfence/ 405/46502.htm.
41. The Strategic Defence Review: a new chapter, July 2002, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/SDR_New_Chapter.pdf; Delivering security in a changing world, Defence White Paper Cm 6041-1, Dec. 2003, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume2.pdf; Delivering security in a changing world: supporting essays, Dec. 2003, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume2.pdf. See also Select Committee on Defence, Fifth report on the Defence White Paper, June 2004, at http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmdfence/ 405/46502.htm.
42. The Strategic Defence Review: a new chapter, July 2002, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/SDR_New_Chapter.pdf; Delivering security in a changing world, Defence White Paper Cm 6041-1, Dec. 2003, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume2.pdf; Delivering security in a changing world: supporting essays, Dec. 2003, at http://www.mod.uk/linked_files/publications/whitepaper2003/volume2.pdf. See also Select Committee on Defence, Fifth report on the Defence White Paper, June 2004, at http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmdfence/ 405/46502.htm.
43. Select Committee on Defence, Fifth report, p. 5.
44. The possibilities include: neo-isolationist, neo-imperialist, selective engagement, liberal internationalist, defensive realist, offensive realist - all outlined in Barry Posen and Andrew Ross, 'Competing grand strategies', in Robert J. Lieber, ed., Eagle adrift: American foreign policy at the end of the century (New York: Longman, 1997), pp. 100-34.
45. Hill notes how the ESS 'passed almost unnoticed even by informed public opinion'. 'Britain and the European Security Strategy', p. 1.
46. Kramer, 'Blair's Britain after Iraq', pp. 90-104.
47. See note 3 above. NATO led the Kosovo war, and the EU has led the DRC peace support operation.
48. Arnold Wolfers, Discord and collaboration: essays on international politics (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962), esp. ch. 6.
49. David Clark, 'Blair's vision of a new world order is critically tainted', Guardian, 8 March 2004, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4874740-103677,00.html.
50. Delivering security, p. 5.
51. As Michael Clarke writes: 'Both political and moral imperatives suggest that strategic nuclear weapons can deter only other strategic nuclear weapons." See his 'Does my bomb look big in this? Britain's nuclear choices after Trident', International Affairs 80: 1, 2004, p. 57.
52. Mohamed Elbaradei, 'Saving ourselves from self-destruction', 12 Feb., 2004, at http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/02/12_elbaradei_saving-ourselves.htm.
53. 41: See Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon's foreword to Delivering Security, p. 1.
54. The Strategic Defence Review: a new chapter, p. 10.
55. Robin Cook, 'Why I had to leave the Cabinet', Guardian, 12 March 2003.
56. Delivering security, p. 5.
57. Select Committee on Defence, Fifth report, p. 4.
58. Delivering security, p. 5. This sounds reminiscent of statements from the early post-1945 period, when the FCO noted that 'The UN is not an ideal instrument for shaping international politics on purely British lines': Mark Curtis, The ambiguities of power: British foreign policy since 1945 (London: Zed, 1995), p. 11.
59. Delivering security, p. 5. This sounds reminiscent of statements from the early post-1945 period, when the FCO noted that 'The UN is not an ideal instrument for shaping international politics on purely British lines': Mark Curtis, The ambiguities of power: British foreign policy since 1945 (London: Zed, 1995), p. 11.
60. The phrase 'holocaust of neglect' is discussed in Henry Shue, Basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and US foreign policy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980). For a brilliant discussion of the construction of terrorism by sovereign states, see William E. Connelly, Identity/difference: democratic negotiations of political paradox (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp. 206-7.
61. The phrase 'holocaust of neglect' is discussed in Henry Shue, Basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and US foreign policy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980). For a brilliant discussion of the construction of terrorism by sovereign states, see William E. Connelly, Identity/difference: democratic negotiations of political paradox (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp. 206-7.
62. World Bank, Millennium development goals report, available at http://www.developmentgoals.org/Child_Mortality.htm.
63. Steve Smith makes a powerful critique of academic International Relations and its culpability in this process: see Smith, 'Singing our world into existence: international relations theory and September 11', International Studies Quarterly 48: 3, 2004, pp. 499-515.
64. As Mary Kaldor argues, 'a country's military forces still represent a symbol of the nation, especially among current and former superpowers': 'American power: from "compellence" to cosmopolitanism', International Affairs 79: 1, 2003, 1-22.
65. H. H.Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds. From Max Weber: essays in sociology, new edn (London: Roudedge, 1991), p. 9.
66. Tony Blair, speech by the Prime Minister at the Lord Mayor's banquet, 10 Nov. 1997, available at http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1070.asp.
67. Blair, speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet.
68. This claim is made by Vickers, The Labour party and the world, p. 193. For a more detailed evaluation of the current Labour government's interventions, see Rhiannon Vickers, 'Blair's warlike humanitarianism', paper presented to the International Studies Association Conference, Montreal, Canada, 19 March 2004.
69. This claim is made by Vickers, The Labour party and the world, p. 193. For a more detailed evaluation of the current Labour government's interventions, see Rhiannon Vickers, 'Blair's warlike humanitarianism', paper presented to the International Studies Association Conference, Montreal, Canada, 19 March 2004.
70. Tony Blair, 'Doctrine of international community', speech given at the Economic Club of Chicago, 24 April 1999, available at http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1297.asp.
71. Andrew Linklater, 'What is a good international citizen?', in Paul Keal, ed., Ethics and foreign policy (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992), pp. 28-9.
72. Peter Lawler has been a consistent advocate of internationalism in foreign policy, as well as a persuasive critic of the British government's claim to be internationalist. His latest essay on internationalism, currently under review, is 'The good state: in praise of "classical" internationalism', unpublished manuscript (2004).
73. Prior to leaving for the United States, both Blair and his team were preoccupied with the conduct of the war, so Jonathan Powell asked Lawrence Freedman if he would map out a list of requirements that needed to be met prior to intervention. Kampfner nicely tells this episode of Freedman's walk in the park, and how - at high altitude - it became the 'doctrine of international community'. Kampfner, Blair's wars, pp. 50-53.
74. Blair, 'Doctrine of international community', emphasis added.
75. These were: 'we must be sure of our case; we must exhaust all diplomatic possibilities; we must be confident that military force will be successful; we must commit to the long-term reconstruction of the state-society in question; our own interests must be at stake'. Blair, 'Doctrine of international community'. It is worth noting that Lawrence Freedman did not intend the checklist to be permissive. Interview, London, 8 May 2004.
76. For an audit of the government's claim to have an ethical foreign policy, see Nicholas J. Wheeler and Tim Dunne, 'Moral Britannia? Evaluation: the ethical dimension in Labour's foreign policy', published by the Foreign Policy Centre, March 2003. Also available at: http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/233.pdf.
77. See Nicholas J. Wheeler, 'Humanitarian responsibilities of sovereignty', in Jennifer M. Welsh, ed., Humanitarian intervention in international relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 46-7.
78. Historians of UK foreign policy will find similarities with the past. Writing in the late 1960s, David Calico argued: 'Yet in a way, Britain, by not choosing one path or the other, has been gradually forced to let down all three': David P. Calleo, Britain's future (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1968), p. 185.
79. While the Clinton administration might have accepted this view of the international community, members of the Bush administration had made it clear they did not even before they arrived in Washington. Condoleezza Rice argued prior to the election victory that America ought to prioritize the national interest and not the interests of 'an illusory international community'. Quoted in Joseph Nye, 'The American national interest and global public goods', International Affairs 78: 2, 2002, pp. 233-44 at p. 236.
80. Tony Blair, speech at the Labour Party conference, 2 Oct. 2001, reprinted in Guardian, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4268838,00.html, p. 4. Emphasis added.
81. Tony Blair, speech at the Labour Party conference, 2 Oct. 2001, reprinted in Guardian, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4268838,00.html, p. 4. Emphasis added.
82. The legal arguments are, as ever, intricate and contested. On balance, however, a large majority of international lawyers reject the government's claim that UN Resolution 1441 gives legal authority for an attack on Iraq. See Richard Norton-Taylor, 'Law unto themselves', Guardian 14 March 2003. For a defence of the legality of the war, see Christopher Greenwood, 'International law and the "war against terrorism'", International Affairs 78: 2, 2002, pp. 301-18.
83. The legal arguments are, as ever, intricate and contested. On balance, however, a large majority of international lawyers reject the government's claim that UN Resolution 1441 gives legal authority for an attack on Iraq. See Richard Norton-Taylor, 'Law unto themselves', Guardian 14 March 2003. For a defence of the legality of the war, see Christopher Greenwood, 'International law and the "war against terrorism'", International Affairs 78: 2, 2002, pp. 301-18.
84. Michael Quinlan, quoted in Hugh Beach, 'The concept of "preventive war"', in Contemporary essays: the Strategic and Combat Studies Unit 47, 2004, p. 69.
85. The phrase 'unilateralist overdrive" is that of EU Commissioner Chris Patten, quoted in Steven Everts, 'Why should Bush take Europe seriously?', Observer Comment Extra, 17 Feb. 2002, available at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,651636,00.html.