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>From wsws.org
""Shrouding himself in rhetoric about the threat from "dangerous and
ruthless men" like Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic, Blair called for
NATO to impose order on the world under the auspices of the US--"by far the
strongest state". ""
WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : The Balkan Crisis
Blair outlines his vision of the new military world order
By Chris Marsden
29 April 1999
On the occasion of his visit to America to celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of the NATO alliance, British Prime Minister Tony Blair took
time out to espouse his new "Doctrine of the International Community".
Blair's speech to the Chicago Economic Club was the highpoint of a weekend
of bellicose statements made to the US political and media establishment on
the need to launch a ground war against Serbia.
It did more than seek to justify NATO's present war, however. Blair fancies
himself as a theoretician of what he describes as the political "Third Way".
He therefore took it upon himself to outline a rationale for any future
intervention in the internal affairs of other nations which the US and
European imperialist powers deem necessary.
"Fools rush in" ... as the saying goes. For Blair has given voice to the
fundamental considerations shaping imperialist foreign policy that are
usually concealed from the public gaze by evoking humanitarian motives.
The tone of Blair's remarks was set by his explanation of the actual content
of the "special relationship" between Britain and America. "Chicagoland," he
declared, "is the headquarters of some of Britain's most important inward
investors: Motorola, Sara Lee, RR Donnelly. Nearly half the $124 billion US
firms spent on foreign acquisitions last year went on British companies. We
would like it to be even more.
"Nor is the traffic all one way. British investment in Illinois generates
some 46,000 jobs, making us the biggest foreign investor in the state. And
the London Futures Exchange is working alongside your Board of Trade and
Mercantile Exchange to lead the revolution in electronic trading."
Blair placed NATO's war against Serbia in the context of the profound
economic changes that had taken place over the last 20 years. Globalisation
had "changed the world in a more fundamental way," he said. It has
"transformed our economies and our working practices."
"Every day about one trillion dollars moves across the foreign exchanges,
most of it in London.... Any government that thinks it can go it alone is
wrong. If the markets don't like your policies they will punish you."
"We live in a world where isolationism has ceased to have a reason to exist.
By necessity we have to co-operate with each other across nations. Many of
our domestic problems are caused on the other side of the world. Financial
instability in Asia destroys jobs in Chicago and in my own constituency in
County Durham.... We are all internationalists now, whether we like it or
not. We cannot refuse to participate in global markets if we want to
prosper."
Blair insisted that all national governments must be encouraged to abide by
the dictates of the world market--as laid down by the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank--and allow the penetration of their economies by the
transnational corporations in the name of "transparency" and "openness".
Russia was targeted for particular attention, with Blair insisting that it
should be prepared "to take the difficult economic action it needs to reform
its economy--to build a sound and well-regulated financial system, to
restructure and close down bankrupt enterprises," etc.
Globalisation is not just an economic, "but also a political and security
phenomenon," he insisted. The dependence of national economies on the
performance of world stock markets means that "We are witnessing the
beginnings of a new doctrine of international community." This required that
all the institutions established at the end of the Second World War to
regulate relations between nations be overhauled--particularly the
respective functions of the United Nations and NATO.
Blair explicitly linked the question of financial interdependence with the
military policy to be pursued by the major imperialist powers. The obverse
side of demanding the establishment of a new economic order based on
globalisation was that the "principles of international community" must
"apply also to international security".
Shrouding himself in rhetoric about the threat from "dangerous and ruthless
men" like Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic, Blair called for NATO to
impose order on the world under the auspices of the US--"by far the
strongest state". This new version of the "Pax Americana" meant that
"non-interference", long "considered an important principle of international
order ... must be qualified". The imperialist powers would instead lay down
the rules determining when intervention should take place. This must also
allow room for the European powers to match the US "with our own efforts.
That is the basis for the recent initiative I took with President Chirac of
France to improve Europe's own defence capabilities."
"The spread of our values makes us safer," said Blair. In elaborating on
these "values" he of course spoke of "liberty", "freedom", "democracy", and
so on. But he really gathered steam when he returned to the "Third Way"
policy of his government--financial prudence, the elimination of budget
deficits through spending cuts privatisation, business-friendly tax
policies, law-and-order measures and the economic reform of Europe along the
British model.
Blair's speech was, as usual, little more than an attempt to codify changes
that have already taken place and give them a democratic and humanitarian
gloss. The economic and political imperatives he enumerates are shaping both
US foreign policy and that of the other European powers. An April 6 article
by Martin Woollacott in the Guardian newspaper, for example, noted a recent
series in the New York Times, which showed "how it became part of the State
Department's job to push deregulation and the dismantling of all barriers to
trade and finance both with individual governments and in international
negotiations on economic matters, such as those which established the World
Trade Organisation. In parallel with this ideological drive, there was a
tactical campaign to ensure that American firms achieved maximum penetration
of other economies."
Wollacott notes, "America's global economic policies, taken together, have
undermined Russia, blown up the south-east Asian economies, de-stabilised
some of its Latin American neighbours, affected many other economies for the
worse, and angered its major trade partners, from Japan to Europe."
It has been a feature of the present war, moreover, that NATO's superseding
of the role once assigned to the United Nations has been decisively
confirmed. As far as the US is concerned, NATO is a more pliable--and
therefore reliable--political and military instrument because it is more
firmly under its control.
Far from leading to the creation of Blair's anodyne "international
community", however, the drive by US and European imperialism to refashion
the world in their own interests inaugurates a period of global militarism
and brutality, the likes of which have not been witnessed for over 50 years.
See Also:
NATO fiftieth anniversary: Tensions increase between Europe and America
[24 April 1999]
The Munich Agreement and the US-NATO war against Yugoslavia: The real
lessons of appeasement in the 1930s
[23 April 1999]
British cabinet minister accuses Labour MPs opposed to NATO bombing of
"appeasing" fascism
[22 April 1999]
War in the Balkans
[WSWS Full Coverage]
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