World Affairs
World view - Lindsey Hilsum wonders what Jack Straw does
Published 16 May 2005
What does the British Foreign Secretary actually do? In Iran, Palestine, Africa and elsewhere, it is clear that he has remarkably little influence, writes Lindsey Hilsum
It's one of the great offices of state. You get to work in a magnificent building, the walls covered in Victorian images of empire, hundreds of civil servants at your command. Like a beauty queen, you travel the world and meet interesting people. You get blamed by left-wing activists for failing to protect vulnerable citizens of third world countries, and by right-wing activists for being indulgent of foreigners in general. But in the end, what does the British Foreign Secretary do? Foreign Office mandarins say that Britain "punches above its weight" in the world, but the fallout from the Iraq war may be a greater understanding of how little leverage Britain has.
Jack defers to Tony who defers to George. During the election campaign, the Prime Minister kept telling us that if he hadn't made the decision to invade Iraq, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today. That was disingenuous, to say the least. The Americans had already decided to topple the Iraqi dictator; Britain had simply to choose whether to be with them or against them. In the eyes of much of the rest of the world, Britain's stature is diminished by the option it took. The argument that being close to power is a way of wielding influence doesn't seem to work - despite all the fuss about "freedom fries", the US and France are now co-operating on policy towards Lebanon and Syria, because they identify a mutual interest. The idea of Britain as a bridge across the Atlantic is a British diplomatic myth. If President Bush needs to speak to President Chirac, he picks up the phone. He doesn't need Tony Blair as a proxy.
The overarching problem Jack Straw faces as he leaves his constituency and returns to the stack of papers in his London in-tray is how little he can do about anything. Take Iran. Straw spearheaded the policy of engagement which persuaded the Iranians to suspend the enrichment of uranium and enter negotiations with Britain, France and Germany over their nuclear programme. The sceptical Americans, convinced that Iran is bent on building a nuclear weapon and not merely nuclear power plants, are giving the Europeans enough rope to hang themselves. The Iranians, seeing that America is overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, know that even the Bush administration is unlikely to bomb or invade in the near future. So, as Straw returned to work, the Iranians announced that they would reopen their uranium conversion facility near Isfahan "within days" - upping the ante, and possibly scuppering Straw's hope of a deal. If they go ahead, talks with the Europeans will stall and eventually Iran will come before the UN Security Council, where it will face an array of sanctions. Straw's policy of talking to Iran may have been right, but that doesn't mean it will work.
Then there is the Middle East. "It's not moving as fast as we had hoped," said a Foreign Office official. True - and, again, there's not a lot Britain can do about it. When Yasser Arafat died, the Prime Minister made a widely scorned attempt to put himself in the frame. He organised a conference in London at which Palestinian officials were meant to explain how they were going to improve governance and financial probity. There is little evidence that their sojourn quickened the pace of democratic change, and it made absolutely no difference to the greater obstacle: Bush's unbending support for the Israeli president, Ariel Sharon, as he expands Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Britain's only hope of increasing its influence in the Middle East and elsewhere is by standing on a common platform with Europe, and in theory Britain's presidency of the European Union later this year should be a good opportunity to do that. But Europe is heading for crisis over the European constitution, which the French are likely to reject in a referendum later this month. Straw will also expend a lot of energy on defending Britain's rebate from the EU. It's scarcely a strong position from which to promote joint policy towards the rest of the world.
And then there is Africa. Asian countries, including China, are investing heavily in Africa and buying up its natural resources, from timber to oil, so Britain holds less economic and political sway than before. None the less, Britain retains influence because of its former colonial links. But in this one area where Britain could make a difference, the Prime Minister has bypassed the Foreign Office. His plan to save Africa, via the Commission for Africa and Britain's chairing of the G8, relies on the Treasury to work on debt relief, and Hilary Benn's Department for International Development for most of the rest.
As he walks up the imposing staircase to the Locarno rooms, Straw might be forgiven for indulging in a little nostalgia about the days when the British Foreign Secretary was a truly powerful figure. Now his best hope is merely to be consulted, as the Prime Minister tries to prove that he is a world statesman, not just the leader of a middle-ranking European country in a fragmented world.
Lindsey Hilsum is international editor for Channel 4 News
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