WORLD_ Britain's wobble has dented our standing in Washington, and the world

The Telegraph
Britain's wobble has dented our standing in Washington, and the world

By Peter Foster World Last updated: September 19th, 2014
564 Comments Comment on this article

*** Blogs Home » News » US politics » Peter Foster Peter Foster Peter Foster is the Telegraph's US Editor based in Washington DC. He moved to America in January 2012 after three years based in Beijing, where he covered the rise of China. Before that, he was based in New Delhi as South Asia correspondent. He has reported for The Telegraph for more than a decade, covering two Olympic Games, 9/11 in New York, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the post-conflict phases in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. ***




Still hand in hand? (Pic: AFP)


Barack Obama has of course welcomed the Scottish "No" vote, but for those reading carefully, his delight came with a slight sting in the tail.

After the usual pleasantries about "no closer ally" and "strong and special relationship", the President added that he was looking forward to working with the people of Great Britain and Northern Ireland "as we address the challenges facing the world today".

On a day when the French launched their first air-strikes in Iraq – and Britain is still nowhere to be seen on that score – those in the UK should be under no illusion that the Scottish referendum process has dented American confidence in us.

As after the flubbed vote on Syria in Parliament last year, the Obama administration – and the foreign policy and political establishment in Washington – sees a weakness, confusion and poor electoral management in Downing Street that does not inspire confidence.

From the US perspective, at a time of international coalition-building to confront the global threat posed by Isis, Scotland – and by extension the UK – has put on a display of spectacular parochialism. It didn't help that it was spurred by Alex Salmond, a man who once described Nato's intervention in Kosovo as an "unpardonable folly".

Oddly, at a diplo-bureaucratic level, I understand that relations between the White House and UK are very good at the moment, bolstered particularly by our helping to drive through EU sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine dispute. One senior administration official tells me this effort has been genuinely appreciated – and has already been repaid, in the shape of the silencing of one senior US cabinet minister, who had wanted to criticise Britain in an international forum on another issue, but was firmly told not to.

But that is all very micro. The big picture is that Britain today looks wobbly – over Scotland, over Syria and, if the electoral gods conspire, over its place in Europe going forward.

This morning Lord Robertson, the former Nato secretary general and defence secretary, did a call with the Atlantic Council and found himself bombarded with questions from anxious Atlanticists about what the great Scottish scrap signals for Britain's place in the world.

Robertson replied by dismissing the SNP as a "Left-wing, anti-American" party, but said that the popularity of isolationist arguments should send a warning to politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to get out and educate the public on the dangers of looking inwards.

Mr Obama, the most reluctant and isolationist of US presidents of recent times, bears his share of responsibility for the public retreating to increasingly localist positions at a time when the world's problems have never been more global.

But that doesn't alter the fact that the panic of the last few days in Scotland has provided a stark reminder that the United Kingdom – to whose unity and stability Americans never previously gave a second thought – is particularly vulnerable to these forces of parochialism.

That has certainly not improved Britain's standing in Washington, or indeed the world.

• Get the latest comment and analysis from the Telegraph
• Read more from our news and politics bloggers

_____________

What do YOU think?


Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc . 
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị . 



conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
21092014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC