Brismes Lecture: The Future of British Foreign Policy in the Middle East

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw draws on his experience and Britain's colonial legacy to argue that while the United Kingdom needs to recognise the effects of past policy and how it is perceived in the Middle East, the UK should not be a prisoner of its legacies from the past. In this annual address to the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) he argues that knowledge should be used to create in-depth understanding that in turn should be built on to create more enduring foreign policy goals. He puts forward a coherent case for a more positive and comprehensive relationship with Iran and Turkey as potential allies in building more stable and yet also more democratic and accountable governments throughout the Middle East. Jack Straw argues that the UK is better placed than many to learn from past mistakes and create more robust strategic goals for the future.     

New Zealand

European Journal of Political Research -     

The debate over south Africa's foreign policy

South Africa is no exception to the rule that there tends to be continuity in a state's foreign policy even in the event of far‐reaching domestic political change. But given the new South Africa's debt to a global human rights campaign, the emphasis on ‘staking out the moral high ground’ in the rhetoric of the country's new decision‐makers and of commentators is not surprising. The article discusses the creative tension between the claims of morality and the constraints of realpolitik in the debate on the formulation of the new South Africa's foreign policy. It identifies both differences and overlaps in the approaches of realists and radicals to the conduct of the country's foreign policy.     

Tocqueville's return again from America

Tocqueville et les Françis. By F. MÉLONIO, Aubier, 1993. Pp. 408. FF160. ISBN 2–7007–2244–2.