Monday, October 22, 2018
Is the world a less safer place?
I well remember that moment in history when Ronald Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev. It was especially historic because a man who won the US Presidency by campaigning against the evil empire of the USSR, was able to moderate his views in the face of the facts and took the opportunity to make the world a safer place.
Now, 31 years later, we have another populist politician walking away from that agreement for what appears to be legitimate reasons, but on past form could be just ego or ideology. Donald Trump has told so many untruths, has modified his position so many times (often several times during the same day) and played to the crowd so often, that frankly nobody knows whether to believe him or not when he cites national security reasons for starting yet another arms race.
My instincts are that even with Russian infringements, it is better to remain within a treaty framework that makes the world a safer place and try to work through the treaty to put things right, rather than walk away altogether and start to commission more missiles. I rather hoped that would be the UK position as well.
Unfortunately, as this article outlines the UK Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson is backing Trump. He has called on the Kremlin to “get its house in order”:
“Our close and long-term ally of course is the United States and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the treaty obligation that it signed,” Mr Williamson said.
“We of course want to see this treaty continue to stand but it does require two parties to be committed to it and at the moment you have one party that is ignoring it.”
“It is Russia that is in breach and it is Russia that needs to get its house in order,” added the defence secretary, who is in the US while the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Elizabeth visits New York.
It is difficult to gauge whether this support is justified without having all the facts at our disposal, whether Williamson feels that he has to act tough because he has Prime Ministerial ambitions and such talk plays well with the Tory grassroots, or whether he is acting in this way because the UK is still desperately casting around for post-Brexit allies.
What is clear however, is that the world is a less safer place, another cold war beckons and that as both sides ramp-up the rhetoric we are losing control of events. We do not need the UK to be yet another Donald Trump acolyte. Our role should be to help bring the two sides together and rescue a very important peace initiative. Why are our Ministers not doing this?
Now, 31 years later, we have another populist politician walking away from that agreement for what appears to be legitimate reasons, but on past form could be just ego or ideology. Donald Trump has told so many untruths, has modified his position so many times (often several times during the same day) and played to the crowd so often, that frankly nobody knows whether to believe him or not when he cites national security reasons for starting yet another arms race.
My instincts are that even with Russian infringements, it is better to remain within a treaty framework that makes the world a safer place and try to work through the treaty to put things right, rather than walk away altogether and start to commission more missiles. I rather hoped that would be the UK position as well.
Unfortunately, as this article outlines the UK Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson is backing Trump. He has called on the Kremlin to “get its house in order”:
“Our close and long-term ally of course is the United States and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the treaty obligation that it signed,” Mr Williamson said.
“We of course want to see this treaty continue to stand but it does require two parties to be committed to it and at the moment you have one party that is ignoring it.”
“It is Russia that is in breach and it is Russia that needs to get its house in order,” added the defence secretary, who is in the US while the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Elizabeth visits New York.
It is difficult to gauge whether this support is justified without having all the facts at our disposal, whether Williamson feels that he has to act tough because he has Prime Ministerial ambitions and such talk plays well with the Tory grassroots, or whether he is acting in this way because the UK is still desperately casting around for post-Brexit allies.
What is clear however, is that the world is a less safer place, another cold war beckons and that as both sides ramp-up the rhetoric we are losing control of events. We do not need the UK to be yet another Donald Trump acolyte. Our role should be to help bring the two sides together and rescue a very important peace initiative. Why are our Ministers not doing this?
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Welcome back from your holiday!? Brexit has reduced our standing in the World and is taking up all our time. Not a good time to be a mediator but we must try. It reminds me of the 1930,s when Japan walked out of the League of Nations, Trump walking out of this deal. Equally I feel that the UN is being got at by Trump. The similarities look the same.
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