Friday
Feb062009
Obama and Blair: The Symbolism of Loyalty
Friday, February 6, 2009 at 11:12
Dr David Dunn, of the University of Birmingham, picks up on a symbolic meeting at the White House and offers the following evaluation for Enduring America.
Much to the chagrin of currently-serving world leaders, President Obama reserved his first meeting with a foreign statesman for....retired British Prime Minister Tony Blair. While Downing Street and the Elysee Palace remain locked in a battle to see which of their men will visit the White House, the honour was bestowed instead on a former leader.
So how should Obama’s move be interpreted, since it certainly would have been no accident? Eighth years ago President Bush first met “his good friend” President Vincent Fox of Mexico and then the Prime Minister of Canada, making a statement about the priority of hemispheric relations. President Chirac was the first European to meet Bush in the White House, a claim he secured by insisting that he was the longest serving major European ally.
For Obama’s decision several factors could be at play. Blair remains hugely popular and well known in the US, and twelve years ago he was the new, youthful leader that inspired hope on the international stage. Obama may partly be bathing in that association. Keeping Blair on as a Middle East envoy also needs Obama’s endorsement and there is no better way of doing that than an invite to the White House.
The most likely reasons for the invitation, however, are to do with the symbolism of loyalty. Given that Blair was a loyal ally of Bush, Obama is letting it be known that Blair’s loyalty has been transferred to the new American administration. So effectively the meeting represented mutual endorsement.
But Obama is also signalling something else. What America values most is not its relations with this or that state but with allies that are loyal. This is in part a signal to the current British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in response to the more critical approach adopted by his government towards UK-US relations since 2007. It would also seem to be an endorsement of the Palmerstonian principle, “We have neither permanent friends nor permanent enemies: only permanent interests.”
This is something that Blair also seemed to recognise in his meeting on Thursday, with his statement that “the truest friends are those still around when the going gets tough”. Perhaps Mr Obama hopes that his European allies are listening.
Much to the chagrin of currently-serving world leaders, President Obama reserved his first meeting with a foreign statesman for....retired British Prime Minister Tony Blair. While Downing Street and the Elysee Palace remain locked in a battle to see which of their men will visit the White House, the honour was bestowed instead on a former leader.
So how should Obama’s move be interpreted, since it certainly would have been no accident? Eighth years ago President Bush first met “his good friend” President Vincent Fox of Mexico and then the Prime Minister of Canada, making a statement about the priority of hemispheric relations. President Chirac was the first European to meet Bush in the White House, a claim he secured by insisting that he was the longest serving major European ally.
For Obama’s decision several factors could be at play. Blair remains hugely popular and well known in the US, and twelve years ago he was the new, youthful leader that inspired hope on the international stage. Obama may partly be bathing in that association. Keeping Blair on as a Middle East envoy also needs Obama’s endorsement and there is no better way of doing that than an invite to the White House.
The most likely reasons for the invitation, however, are to do with the symbolism of loyalty. Given that Blair was a loyal ally of Bush, Obama is letting it be known that Blair’s loyalty has been transferred to the new American administration. So effectively the meeting represented mutual endorsement.
But Obama is also signalling something else. What America values most is not its relations with this or that state but with allies that are loyal. This is in part a signal to the current British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in response to the more critical approach adopted by his government towards UK-US relations since 2007. It would also seem to be an endorsement of the Palmerstonian principle, “We have neither permanent friends nor permanent enemies: only permanent interests.”
This is something that Blair also seemed to recognise in his meeting on Thursday, with his statement that “the truest friends are those still around when the going gets tough”. Perhaps Mr Obama hopes that his European allies are listening.