Benedict Brogan’s always excellent blog has an interesting post on the question of what Brown’s first foreign trip as leader will be. As Brogan notes, if Brown goes to Paris and Berlin he risks looking like the new kid in the class eager for approval from his peers—a danger that has been heightened by Sarkozy so successfully establishing himself as Mr. Europe. While if he heads to Washington, he’ll have to take a position vis-à-vis the Bush administration far sooner than he’d like.
There is, though, a third way: make New York and the United Nations his first trip. Brogan thinks this is the likeliest destination as it would allow Brown to emphasise both the softer side of foreign policy and that Britain is in Iraq under a UN mandate.
If Brown really wanted to surprise people, he should head to the forgotten front of the war on terror, Afghanistan. The visit would help allay some of the military’s many doubts about him. It would also enable him to make the case for continuing an activist foreign policy without getting bogged down in the debate over Iraq.
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