British foreign policy

The extent to which foreign policy can be personal is a nice point, perhaps a suitable subject for a Chatham House research paper. Certainly there are too many established channels and institutions, and too many factors beyond the control of any individual, to allow it to become anything approaching an exclusively personal domain-nor would I wish it to be so. The extent to which foreign policy in this country has traditionally been bipartisan is another restraint and a very welcome one. But equally I have no doubt that a Foreign Secretary must put his own personal stamp on the direction and emphasis of his country's actions and words in the outside world. Some of this is no doubt tinkering at the margins of the existing consensus but on the central issues it must be more than this. I should like to express here some of my own convictions and priorities. It is vital that any country should have the clearest possible idea of its interests and objectives and should construct a coherent policy based on them. Reactions to events piecemeal can never be enough, although the best-constructed foreign policy will be of no use if it cannot deal with and adapt to events as they happen. Our major objectives are, as they have long been, first to ensure the security of this country, its people and its dependent territories through a strong and harmonious Alliance, by determination to resist aggression and expansionism, and by a realistic and energetic approach to arms control; secondly, to promote Britain's prosperity through the encouragement of international economic cooperation, the securing of reliable supplies of raw materials at stable prices, and the stimulation of receptive markets for our own exports; thirdly, to work for international stability both as an end in itself and to provide the environment in which the two prime objectives of security and prosperity can best be pursued; and finally, to maintain and improve our reputation as a valuable friend and ally and a potentially dangerous antagonist. But there is, of course, much more to it than that. The cynical view of foreign policy as a narrow and bloodless calculation of national profit and loss is one which makes no sense for a country as deeply engaged in the outside world as Britain is, and one which I find alien. In a parliamentary democracy, foreign policy must be the outward projection of the values and aspirations of the nation as a whole. The British have a generally well-founded suspicion of pious abstractions in foreign policy; they like to think of their own policy as pragmatic. And so it is, but only up to a point; the currents of pragmatism run between firm banks of strongly held belief and deeply ingrained sentiment. Our foreign policy has to reflect our commitment to liberties personal, political and economic. It must reflect old friendships and affinities of culture, language and religion

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