1st June 2011
Global Engagement and Neighbourhood Solutions
I have just spent three weeks in the United Kingdom, attending our annual conference of ambassadors and talking to a wide range of people about the direction of British foreign policy in this second decade of the twenty first century.
What is clear is that there is plenty to do. No country, least of all an open society and trading nation like Britain, can afford to isolate itself from global events. The events of the last few months in the Middle East have shown what happens to leaders who lose touch with their people, and who fail to respond to – or, worse, attempt to repress – the legitimate demands of their people for freedom of expression, democracy, economic development, and access to the outside world through new media like the internet. Global debates on issues like climate change, migration and free trade are touching all our lives. No government can ignore them.
Britain is opening five new embassies – in El Salvador, Kyrgysztan, Madagascar, Somalia and the new country of South Sudan – because we need to be in touch. We need to be listening, talking and engaging. We live in a world that needs to integrate and work together to survive, but too often is failed by its leaders who seem to prefer the easier path of conflict or indifference, instead of looking for solutions, and fail to attempt to overcome the burdens of history.
When I was in London, The Queen paid a historic visit to Ireland. Historic because it sought to turn a new page in the sometimes troubled relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom, to find solutions to seemingly intractable problems flowing from a colonial past. Britain and Ireland are neighbours, and friends. If we want our leaders to make an impact, we should insist that they start at home, in the neighbourhood, seeking to solve the problems of history rather than create new problems for the future. Let us hope that that will be the path followed by the leaders of Bolivia and Chile as they debate the question of Bolivia’s access to the Pacific. Dialogue and creativity are the only ways forward if we wish to solve the dilemmas created by our past.