Reaction, October 3, Tim Less
No one on the political right doubts the need for a conservative economic policy or a conservative social policy that is different from the one offered by the political left. However, no such logic seems to apply to foreign policy.
For many, Britain’s approach to the outside world is seen as existing in a separate realm to domestic policy, defined by enduring interests and values that transcend ideology or party politics. And, in some measure, this is true.
But there are always choices to be made in foreign policy. The national interest is not a stable concept but one defined by what politicians perceive to be important. Nor are the means for pursuing these interests in any way fixed.
Unfortunately, thirteen years since the political left last held power, many small-c conservatives are still running with an approach to global affairs defined by their opponents – a kind of liberal internationalism that prioritises the pursuit of human rights and natural justice over alternative goals such as security and prosperity, and is willing to subordinate Britain to rule by international institutions to achieve these.
Certainly, matters have moved on since the 2000’s when conservatives backed the Blair government’s various humanitarian interventions in the Islamic world and elsewhere, under the American-imported rubric of ‘neo-conservatism’.
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