PM has 'failed to influence Bush'

12 April 2012

Tony Blair has failed to influence George Bush's policies in any significant way, despite his unwavering support for the US president, a think tank has said.

Delivering its verdict on ten years of foreign policy under the Prime Minister, a Chatham House briefing paper said his legacy would be defined by the "terrible mistake" of the war with Iraq.

It said Mr Blair was now paying the price for setting too much store by his relationship with Mr Bush and warned that his successor would have to strike a new foreign policy balance between Europe and the US.

"The post-9/11 decision to invade Iraq was a terrible mistake and the current debacle will have policy repercussions for many years to come," the paper said.

"The root failure of Tony Blair's foreign policy has been its inability to influence the Bush administration in any significant way despite the sacrifice - military, political and financial - that the United Kingdom has made. Tony Blair has learnt the hard way that loyalty in international politics counts for very little."

The paper, written by outgoing Chatham House director Victor Bulmer-Thomas, said Mr Blair's first term as Prime Minister had been a "qualified success" - demonstrating Britain's European credentials while forging a close working relationship with US president Bill Clinton.

However his response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and decision to back Mr Bush over the invasion of Iraq marked a "watershed" in British foreign policy.

"This was without a shadow of doubt the defining moment of Blair's foreign policy - indeed, the defining moment of his whole premiership. It will shape his legacy - for better or for worse - for many years to come," the paper said.

In the absence of support in the United Nations for a humanitarian intervention in Iraq, the paper said it had been a "terrible mistake" to rely on Saddam Hussain's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as a justification for war.