Missive from a minion

by | Aug 1, 2007


A breathtakingly thuggish op-ed on the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and US in the FT today. The author? John Bolton, who these days is a senior fellow somewhere or other.

According to Bolton, the UK needs to take two teensy weensy steps to keep the relationship fresh:

  1. Pull out of the EU or face the consequences – ejection from the Security Council, end of intelligence co-operation etc.
  2. Join the US in invading Iran whenever it feels ready to stop European connivance in the Iranian ‘goose-step towards nuclear weapons.’

Laughably, Bolton tries to present his position as reflective of a bipartisan consensus in the US, while pompous to the last, he offers to wait a while (“but not forever”) for the British PM to pledge allegiance to neo-conservative orthodoxy.

I am sure Bolton’s screed is being read with great seriousness in Downing Street – 2 or 3 microseconds of attention at least. Then Brown’s team will get back to the serious business of working out how they can:

  1. Best ignore lame-duck-Bush and his increasingly batty minions, and
  2. Buddy up to the various brave souls volunteering themselves to clear up the mess Dubya will leave behind.

The FT is offering all and sundry the chance to put questions to Bolton in an ‘ask the expert’ session (expert in what? one wonders). Ask your questions here…

Author

  • David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.

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