According to the Conservative Party website the Conservative Party will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:
A Conservative Government’s approach to foreign affairs will be based on liberal Conservative principles.
Liberal, because Britain must be open and engaged with the world, supporting human rights and championing the cause of democracy and the rule of law at every opportunity. But Conservative, because our policy must be hard-headed and practical, dealing with the world as it is and not as we wish it were.
We and our allies face our most serious challenges from persistent international terrorism, attempts by Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, and a newly aggressive Russia.
We must recognise that we are much stronger working through NATO, the UN, or the G8 than when acting alone, and that our moral authority is vital to our success.
Britain enjoys a unique position – it is the place where America, Europe and the Commonwealth meet. Our outlook and responsibilities have always been global, and for Britain to play a full role on the international stage we must:
* Restore cabinet government to our foreign policy decision-making and establish a national security council
* Properly manage our relations with the United States while extending our alliances and trading relationships elsewhere
* Champion reform of the EU and other multilateral or global institutions while simultaneously upholding our own highest values
Conservative Party Foreign Affairs Policy :http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Foreign_Affairs_and_Europe.aspx
I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on Conservative’s Foreign Affairs policies in the comments below?
“dealing with the world as it is and not as we wish it were.”
????? Bizarre thing to say, when in reality all counties are full of good and bad people, ruling people and people who oppose, people who you have to be careful with and people you need to help and support.
I’m afraid this lot just want us to think the whole world is out to get the UK !!!!
You are paranoid Mr Cameron
View Comment
“dealing with the world as it is and not as we wish it were.”
I agree that this is a very strange thing to say, indeed.
Call me optimistic, but I want to vote for a government that spends it time striving to make the world ‘as we wish it were’ rather than ‘dealing with the world as it is’.
I’m currently a floating voter trying to establish which party to paddle towards. And I must say that that comment has made me float in the opposite direction some what.
View Comment
I agree with the statement “the world as it is” because if you think about it Tony Blair supposedly wanted to make the World a better place by invading Iraq and Afghanistan and London was bombed just a few years later by people who are trained there! Not a good day for optimism to be honest…
“We must recognise that we are much stronger working through NATO, the UN, or the G8 than when acting alone, and that our moral authority is vital to our success.”
Although I don’t disagree with the above per se, the truth is the above coalitions have been shown to be toothless at times and incapable of acting (too many vito’s).
Not one for war mongering, but at times Europe/USA needs to act and act fast in the name of what’s right (Bosnia comes to mind!).
If Europe was a stronger force together (and I wish it was) we’d have never had to make the decision to invade Iraq with America. Almost everyone believed Iraq had WMDs (they’d used them previously), but the UN refused to act decisively.
If Iraq had WMDs (which was the consensus when we invaded) and we found them, we’d have been seen to some degree have made the correct decision to invade. That being said invading any sovereign country like Iraq/Afghanistan, history tells us it’s never going to go well. I think we’d have a completely different history if the UN/NATO had real strength behind it.
David
View Comment
In my opinion half the problem is that there are too many organisations trying to have a say, UN, Nato etc, the EU needs to have one single group that decides on issues like this.
Currently we have to vote too many times, 1st in our own Gov, 2nd in Nato, 3rd in the UN etc etc.
The European Member States should have their own Nato style organisation where the choices are made quickly, the that decision should be past to the UN.
A system like this would speed up the decision making process and give Europe a single voice through one central organisation, it would mean getting rid of Nato of course but that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, extra cost savings for every Gov of the EU.
View Comment