The principles of the Peace of Westphalia worked quite well until Tony Blair decided it was too old to matter and that he could ignore it. Thus did he legitimise the 2nd Gulf War in his head.
In 1999, British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a speech in Chicago where he "set out a new, post-Westphalian, 'doctrine of the international community.'" Blair argued that globalization had made the Westphalian approach anachronistic. Blair was later referred to by The Daily Telegraph as "the man who ushered in the post-Westphalian era." Others have also asserted that globalization has superseded the Westphalian system.
A web search for "westphalian peace tony blair" will lead you to all sorts of venom.
I remember the post-Westphalia bollocks that Blair spouted as well.
He always did fancy himself as 'president' of the UK, he achieved President of the EU but I think he would have fancied a shot of 'president' of the world if such a structure had existed.
As well as his lost credibility and new found notoriety as a 'war criminal' perhaps the best damnation of tony Blair is that he wrote a letter to Isiah Berlin to challenge Berlin on his definitions of Negative and Positive freedoms, Berlin was on his death bed at the time and died shortly after Blair had sent the letter.... Perhaps Blair thought himself so important that Berlin would send a reply from beyond the grave?
No actually the best damnation of Blair is that, in his ten year tenure as a labour prime minister, he used the word 'socialist' in public only three times...
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The principles of the Peace of Westphalia worked quite well until Tony Blair decided it was too old to matter and that he could ignore it. Thus did he legitimise the 2nd Gulf War in his head.
From Wikipedia:
In 1999, British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a speech in Chicago where he "set out a new, post-Westphalian, 'doctrine of the international community.'" Blair argued that globalization had made the Westphalian approach anachronistic. Blair was later referred to by The Daily Telegraph as "the man who ushered in the post-Westphalian era." Others have also asserted that globalization has superseded the Westphalian system.
A web search for "westphalian peace tony blair" will lead you to all sorts of venom.
Presumably he considered it a "scrap of paper".
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Great points made there Simon.
I remember the post-Westphalia bollocks that Blair spouted as well.
He always did fancy himself as 'president' of the UK, he achieved President of the EU but I think he would have fancied a shot of 'president' of the world if such a structure had existed.
As well as his lost credibility and new found notoriety as a 'war criminal' perhaps the best damnation of tony Blair is that he wrote a letter to Isiah Berlin to challenge Berlin on his definitions of Negative and Positive freedoms, Berlin was on his death bed at the time and died shortly after Blair had sent the letter.... Perhaps Blair thought himself so important that Berlin would send a reply from beyond the grave?
No actually the best damnation of Blair is that, in his ten year tenure as a labour prime minister, he used the word 'socialist' in public only three times...