Tony Blair

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Date: Thursday 14 September 2006

The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett will today launch a pamphlet authored by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

The pamphlet was inspired by a set of 3 landmark speeches made earlier this year.

TONY BLAIR says in the report:

"The situation we face is indeed war, but of a completely unconventional kind. And it can't be won in a conventional way. We will not win the battle against global extremism unless we win it at the level of values as much as force.

"Doing this requires us to change dramatically the focus of our policy. We must commit ourselves to a complete renaissance of our strategy to defeat those that threaten us.

"We need to construct an alliance of moderation that paints a future in which Muslim, Jew and Christian, Arab and western, wealthy and developing nations can make progress in peace and harmony with each other.

"A great danger is that global politics divides into "hard" and "soft": the "hard" get after the terrorists; the "soft" campaign against poverty. That divide is dangerous because interdependence makes all these issues just that: interdependent. The answer to terrorism is the universal application of global values. The answer to poverty is the same. That is why the struggle for global values has to be applied not selectively, but to the whole global agenda.

"I also acknowledge that the state of the Middle East Peace Process and the stand-off between Israel and Palestine remains a - perhaps the - genuine source of anger in the Arab and Muslim world, going far beyond usual anti-western feeling. The issue of "even handedness" rankles deeply.

"We need relentlessly, vigorously, to put a viable Palestinian Government on its feet, to offer a vision of how the Roadmap to final status negotiation can happen and then pursue it, week in, week out, until it is done. Nothing else will do. Nothing else is more important to the success of our foreign policy. But it will not happen unless in each individual part the necessary energy and commitment is displayed not fitfully, but continuously.

"For my part, I have committed to making this an absolute priority for the rest of my time in office."

Responding to those who have criticised the White House:

"The strain of, frankly, anti-American feeling in parts of European politics is madness when set against the long-term interests of the world we believe in.

"The danger with America today is not that they are too much involved. The danger is if they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage. We need them involved. We want them engaged. The reality is that none of the problems that press in on us can be resolved or even contemplated without them."

STEPHEN TWIGG, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre said:

"In this Foreign Policy Centre pamphlet the Prime Minister acknowledges that mistakes have been made, but makes a plea for supporters and opponents of the war to unite in support of democracy in Iraq today.

"The most damning criticism of western foreign policy is that we display 'double standards' – for example, intervention in Iraq but not in Darfur. Bill Clinton has described the Rwanda genocide as the greatest failure of his presidency. As the Prime Minister says here 'the danger of leaving things as they are is ad-hoc coalitions that stir massive controversy about legitimacy; or paralysis in the face of crisis'.

"There is no doubt that Iraq divided the progressive coalition which welcomed Blair's Chicago speech and supported the interventions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone; the late Robin Cook was as eloquent in his defence of intervention in Kosovo as he was in his disagreement over Iraq. Is there an agenda around which that progressive coalition can be re-united?"

The pamphlet is being supported by APCO Worldwide.