David Miliband

Quote of the week

My visit this week to Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq was punctuated with people describing their links to Britain. One conversation particularly sticks in the memory.

I was told by someone that they had great affection for British education. "I studied at Eton, Oxford, Nottingham and London universities". I congratulated him and said I would not hold his Eton past against him.

He replied: "Why, did you go to Harrow?".

Posted at 16:33 25 April 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[6]

Lebanon: limbo or slippery slope?

The Iraq conference provided the opportunity for some unique gatherings - including a new Friends of Lebanon group with a preponderance of Arab members but French, UK and US support. The conclusions of the meeting are reported here.

What the conclusions do not say is a) it is striking that Arab states have become so impatient with Syria that they want to speak out and b) the urgency of the situation demands support for the Lebanese government in economic, political and security terms.

18 times, including today, the Lebanese parliament has been summoned to elect a president - and failed because of the blocking tactics of the minority. Lebanon is not just a symptom of Middle East tension. It is also a sovereign country deserving of urgent support.

Posted at 19:04 22 April 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[0]

The things they tell you...

We all know that Finland is properly renowned for being top of the best leagues - not football but education. The PISA education studies say Finland's 15 year olds have the highest educational achievement, and there is also the least inequality of achievement of OECD countries in Finland But on a trip last week I was also told in my FCO brief that Finland is top of the mosquito swatting championships...surely not...who counts these things?

Finland, Denmark and Sweden, which I visited this week, are all countries which have made a virtue of their openness, and have committed money and people to furtherance of decent values around the world.  Two Danish soldiers were killed in Afghanistan last week - further testimony to that country's commitments. 

But the Finns and Swedes are not in NATO - hence the importance of the EU/NATO coordination that I discussed in all three countries. The membership of the two organisations has significant overlap, but they were founded to do different things, and should be complementary in their activities.  They can only do this if there is proper coordination - in Brussels and on the ground in Kosovo and Afghanistan. One important by-product of the talks this week on Cyprus will I hope be the confidence on both sides to try to overcome the barriers to NATO/EU cooperation.

Democracy Canon

I spoke to 400 students at Copenhagen University about the future of Europe. A week before the Danish government published their 'Democracy Canon' - "intended to act as an inspiration for a debate on the understanding of the prerequisites for democracy in Denmark."

The canon lists 35 key events, philosophical trends and political texts that have had the most significance for Danish democracy.  The Magna Carta and John Locke get a mention alongside The Jutland Act and the Danish Farm and High School Movement as well as the Salman Rushdie affair and...notably for a country often alleged to be viscerally Euro-sceptic... the EU Treaties.  Before this sets off a great debate..."EU Referenda" get a mention too.

It's a nice idea.  A British list would probably be shorter (Magna Carta, Reform Acts...) and more focused on our own history (can't see Tocqueville making it, or Greek democracy).  Maybe that is why our notion of democracy is a bit thin.

Five Years On

The media and public have rightly paused this week to reflect on the Iraq War five years on.  I think the essential point is that the war itself went better than people feared, but building the peace has been much more difficult than people expected.  For many people the judgment of history has already been made.  But the next five years, not the last five, will be decisive for political reconciliation, for security improvement, and for economic reconstruction.  The BBC/ABC poll this week makes striking reading.  It is not that things are sorted; it is that the undoubted steps backwards in 2004/5 have been reversed; and that confidence creates its own momentum.

We will debate the timing of an inquiry into the origins of the war in the House of Commons on Tuesday.  The important work now underway across the country, including in Basra where over 4,000 British troops are doing important work in support of the Iraqi Security Forces, means that the government do not believe the time is now right for such an inquiry.  Let's stay focused on the job in hand.

Posted at 18:25 23 March 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]

Responsible Sovereignty

The debate about Burma or Kenya or Darfur, not to mention Iraq or Afghanistan, is often couched in terms of interference in the affairs of another country.  And the Chinese doctrine of non interference has been used to draw a distinction with more activist approaches to foreign policy.  But in an interdependent world what is non interference?  We 'interfere' with each economically, politically and environmentally all the time.

That is why I used my speech at Beijing University to advocate an approach I called 'responsible sovereignty' - recognising the continuing central role of the nation state in having a hold on people's affections and for making decisions in the world, but recognising that in its treatment of its own citizens and in its engagement around the world sovereign states have responsibilities that are fettered by a set of universal values (the UN's 2005 Responsibility to Protect gave this legal form).

I built the term from Robert Zoellick's idea of 'responsible stakeholder' that he developed in 2005.  But 'stakeholder' does not have a Chinese translation.  And sovereignty speaks to the reality of the role of nation states. 

Posted at 16:55 03 March 2008 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]