Monthly Archives: April 2014

Book Review: Hard Choices

Posted on by

How do you write a memoir that you want to be both a bestseller and yet not have any political hostages to fortune? ‘Relatively easily’ would seem to be the answer if you are Hillary Rodham Clinton whose new tome, Hard Choices, pulls the curtain back on her time as America’s top diplomat, even if some of the self-censorship leaves the reader wanting more.

This book does not reprise all her personal story; that task fell to her first volume of autobiography, Living History. Instead, this is more a foreign policy textbook full of facts and analysis of over 100 countries visited and nearly one million miles flown. It opens with the clandestine discussions that led to the former presidential primary candidate serving in the administration of her erstwhile foe. Although the challenges of the primary season are hinted at, they are not discussed in detail, in keeping with much of the memoir that seems to conclude that much is best not said at this time.

Clinton writes passionately about the rebuilding of America’s reputation overseas, the pivot to Asia, her personal pride in opening up Burma and meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as her determination to use the bully pulpit of the post to promote women’s rights. There is enough policy detail and colour on how government works as well as anecdotes on everything from life on the road to pantsuits and scrunchies to keep the reader engaged.

However, while Living History did not give us any really new insight into her personal relationship with Bill Clinton, Hard Choices does not reveal much about her political one with Barack Obama. The line about them meeting to talk about her becoming secretary of state as being ‘like two teenagers on an awkward first date’ either does not speak highly of her adolescent years or glosses over the real nature of their relationship as victor and vanquished. Loyalty, not just to the 44th president but to his staff, is one of the hallmarks of the book. There are moments when disagreements are hinted at, but this volume is certainly a long way from the settling of scores or career-rebuttal of recent memoirs such as that by the former defence secretary, Robert Gates.

And that is the basic problem with this book. This is essentially the second volume of an expected trilogy. It is a well-written account of her time as secretary of state and a very impressive application to be president. But it does not have the whodunnit reveal at the end. You just know the story is not over, and the way the book is written makes you think that the author does not believe it is either.

Whether this bothers you will partly depend on your enthusiasm for Clinton to have another tilt at the presidency, and determine whether the gaps in the story are an understandable necessity or a frustrating example of political caution.

So, while there is much to commend in Hard Choices, we will just have to wait for the concluding volume, ‘Madam President’, to give us those candid insights you just wish there were a few of in this volume.

 

This article originally appeared on Progress Online.

A genuinely historic visit by President Higgins to Britain

Posted on by

The word ‘historic’ is overused but this week’s first state visit to Britain by an Irish president qualifies for that adjective and marks another step forward in the previously troubled relationship between the two islands.

The visit coincided with the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that Michael D Higgins said in his address to parliament ‘was founded on the cornerstones of equality, justice and democratic partnership’ and ‘was a key milestone on the road to today’s warm, deep and enduring Irish-British friendship.’

There is no doubting that the peace process that was delivered by Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, the parties and the people, has delivered real results and is an achievement that the former prime minister said this week ‘remains one of the most significant and remarkable moments of peacemaking in recent times. Even today, for all the challenges, it provides a source of hope and inspiration for peacemakers everywhere.’

Today politics in Northern Ireland is facing the same struggles as elsewhere: despite being the most politicised place in Europe the anti-politics mood applies to those in Belfast as much as it does in Westminster.

Tony Blair once described the peace process as a bicycle: you were constantly having to find ways to keep the wheels turning to move it forward otherwise it would fall over.

To that extent the work is never done. Challenges remais that require continued leadership from all sides. But that should not obscure the peace and prosperity that followed those sleepless nights in Castle Buildings 16 years ago.

Therefore the public statecraft represented by the reciprocal visits by the heads of state visits is the culmination of years of work by the elected politicians to find a way that means we can remember our history but not be trapped by it.

As Higgins said this week, credit should go to the Queen for having made her own trip to Ireland in 2011, including to Croke Park and the Garden of Remembrance, and showing that we can move beyond the past into a shared future

Some of that past was reflected in the fact that the morning after the state dinner at Windsor Castle it was not the president but another Irishman who made a number of the front pages: Martin McGuinness.

It is an image that will both confuse and enrage as the former IRA activist sits down to dinner in white tie and tails with head of state of the organisation’s sworn enemy. Progress, for that is what it was, can certainly look strange but beyond the flummery it was another step to be welcomed.

For so much of our past, the personal and political have intersected with tragic consequences. The fact that the Queen’s cousin was the victim of one of the IRA’s most audacious attacks was not lost on Higgins and it was for that reason that the Irish president made the visit to Westminster Abbey and acknowledged the memorial to Lord Mountbatten.

It was particularly pleasing that Higgins, the Labour nominee for the post of president, was the one who made this historic step. Labour in Ireland, like Labour in Britain, has been out of power too often but when in power helps the nation take great strides forward – as Higgins himself did as minister in the 1990s.

The Irish relationship is also a reminder that rows about immigrants coming over to take our jobs are nothing new, despite them in reality having been actively recruited as cheap labour, for example ,in the construction of the railways.

Ed Miliband rightly spoke after his meeting with Higgins of the ‘enormous contribution made by Irish people in Britain across art and culture, business, politics and indeed every area of British society.’

My own family came over from Ireland to find work in the 1920s and that is a story that will be familiar to many. Today the Labour Party Irish Society exists to ensure our shared heritage is a source of strength as we build on the ties that bind us still.

The party has a special place for the Irish in Britain – it is no accident that so many leading trade unionists and Labour parliamentary leaders, from Denis Healey to Tony Blair, can look to Irish roots.

We work to ensure those links remain strong and that support is mobilised at election time as we campaign for the Irish in Britain who have made that positive contribution to our country but now struggle to feel the benefits themselves.

Today the economic relationship can be seen in the simple fact that Britain exports more to Ireland that it does to India, Brazil and China. As the president said in his address to both Houses of Parliament there is much we have in common and much we can do together in the years ahead.

For Britain and Ireland this week’s visit mark a further step towards normalisation, mutual respect and friendship in a relationship that has been marred by prejudice, discrimination and violence. For that we should all be grateful.

This article originally appeared on Progress Online. 

 

Israel, Miliband, and the values that motivate him

Posted on by

Ed Miliband’s patron Neil Kinnock knows only too well from his own pre-election snub by Ronald Reagan that attempts by leaders of the opposition to ‘look prime ministerial’ by jumping on a plane and pumping hands overseas are fraught with danger. It is all the more perilous if they land in the middle of a major diplomatic crisis.

As the reluctant traveller starts a three and a half day trip to the Middle East, Ed Miliband will be well aware that this is a place that has seen even the most accomplished politicians get tripped up.

But he also knows there is also the opportunity to highlight a more personal issue: the values that motivate him.

The Labour leader’s visit to Israel and Palestine, therefore, has a number objectives, from the personal to the political, as his team tries to sketch out more about the Miliband the man and his potential as a prime minister.

Like David Cameron’s recent visit, domestic events have conspired to make this trip happen later than was intended, and it has certainly been a source of concern among the foreign and development policy community and beyond that the Labour leader has spent so little time discussing international affairs at home or abroad.

What we have seen during the delay is confirmation that John Kerry’s latest push for a process, let alone peace, is in serious trouble. The reasons for this are still the source of ongoing debate and the state department was quick to deny any suggestion that the Americans put the blame at the doorstep of the government of Israel, even if that was the logical conclusion of the secretary of state’s recent remarks.

The American envoy, Martin Indyk, is still trying to bridge the gaps between the parties and will have a joint meeting with both negotiators in a few days’ time. But for now we are back in a holding pattern with the international community at risk of splintering along the traditional factional lines absent a credible process to hold them all together.

For Miliband at least this does mean the script is one we are sadly all too familiar with: a repeat of the desire to see the justice and dignity of Palestinian statehood alongside a secure state of Israel, a call for the parties to return to negotiations and for both sides to refrain from any activity (code for settlement-building or violence) that would make that harder.

The Labour leader has talked movingly in the past about his Jewish heritage and the impact the Holocaust has had on his family story. It clearly is part of what shapes him as a politician even if he has had a more ambiguous relationship with the Jewish faith. The visit to the kibbutz where his extended family are shows the best of those progressive values that shaped Miliband politically as well as the founding of the state of Israel.

However, that Labour tradition in Israel has taken a real battering in recent years as the party has sought to renew itself since the premiership of Ehud Barak and the failed Camp David negotiations all the way back in 2000. There will, therefore, be much in common to discuss when Miliband meets with the new Labour leader, Isaac Herzog, and much potential for a strengthening of that political alliance.

As for Miliband’s meetings with the current Israeli administration, it will be looking to ensure that he will have no truck with the boycott, divestment and sanctions agenda, while also stressing its belief in the existential threat that Iran still poses and a hope that the recent Syria vote is not a symbol of a Labour party that is going to be isolationist rather than interventionist.

On the Palestinian side, there will be appreciation that Miliband and Douglas Alexander, who is also on the trip, did not oppose the Palestinians’ moves for recognition at the United Nations and there will be a desire for that to be supported in the months ahead in the absence of a negotiated way forward.

As ever both sides will be looking for certain orthodoxies to be repeated and the media on both sides will be looking to jump on any deviation from the standard script.

But if Miliband is seen to be given access to the senior political leadership on both sides and handles such a complex issue competently, while also fleshing out more of his personal story, then the trip will have been well worth the effort.

This article first appeared on Progress Online.