Daniel Korski

Hague’s modern Realism

In a splurge of activity, William Hague gave both an interview to the FT and another foreign policy speech at RUSI outlining the views of a Conservative government. It was time for an update on Tory thinking, not least because David Cameron’s description of his policy as “liberal conservatism” and his unwillingness to march into a “massive euro bust-up” has had little effect.

That is because a struggle over how to engage with the world continues to run beneath the party leader’s message of party unity. Four main schools of diplomatic thought exist in the party: the modern Realists, the Neo-Conservatives, the anti-Europeans (not the same as the Euroskeptics, which describes everyone who matters) and the “Localists”, populated by members and candidates who are so grounded in local issues that they have no international outlook or interest and tend towards isolationism. Each one tugs at the Conservative leader’s foreign policy heart.

William Hague seems to be a modern Realist. He eschews the unilateralism of old-school Realists, who criticised Harold Macmillan for aligning Britain too closely with the US, but is no naïve multilateralist. He seems to want reconcile the traditional Tory emphasis on the sovereignty of the nation state and aversion to grand designs with a promotion of British values by means of diplomacy, and trade as well as multilateral and European cooperation where it makes sense.

I have been a bit critical of Hague’s past speeches, but I like the tone and direction of his recent remarks. Yes, Britain’s role in the world will invariably decline. Yes, other countries like China and Brazil are on the rise. But no, this does not mean isolationism or forelock-tugging deference to powerful passers-by is right. “If our influence is under challenge, which it certainly is, then our approach must not be to limp away disconsolately, but to pick ourselves up and make the most, systematically and strategically, of our great national assets”.

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