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| Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs | 
 enlarge | Author: Chris Patten
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 87924
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141021446
EAN: 9780141021447
ASIN: 0141021446
Publication Date: June 1, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: USED BOOK, NORMAL SHELF / READING WEAR, SUPER FAST DELIVERY, DISPATCHED WITHIN 24 HOURS FROM UK!!!
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Euro fact February 25, 2008
The Men's Book Club of the Riviera read Chris Patten's book at the suggestion of one of its members, who worked for 10 years in the field of foreign affairs at the European Commission. He thought it was a clear account written by a level-headed politician with experience of government at the highest level, both nationally and internationally. `Foreign Affairs' is a political and legal minefield, in which tricky issues such as sovereignty lie hidden just below the surface, waiting to explode under the feet of the unwary. Difficult decisions have to be made. Does Britain's destiny lie with the USA or the European Union? Is there really a "special relationship" between Britain and the USA, or is Britain America's poodle? How does the notion of a special relationship stand up to the historical fact that at the end of World War II the USA brought pressure to bear on Britain to give up its pretensions of empire and join the European Union?
The author charts Europe's role now that American world leadership is faltering. He repeats the oft quoted remark that the EU is an economic giant but a political pygmy. At its heart is the common market, for which the EU has supranational competence. However, the member states retain power nationally in many domains, such as foreign affairs, defence, tax, education and criminal law. They give up a limited amount of sovereignty. For this reason alone the EU will never be a superstate. Another reason is that there are 23 official languages. Critics of the EU complain that member states surrender their sovereignty to Brussels. Chris Patten puts it another way, insisting that sovereignty is not so much surrendered as pooled. These are issues currently under debate as the EU's member states consider the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon.
The book aims to inform its readers about the EU and also answer the canards aimed at the EU by a hostile press. Not many people know that the EU budget (2004/5, at the time the book was written) was 70 billion, about half the budget of the British Department of Health, or that many of the allegations of fraud levelled at the EU are misplaced because much of the EU's budget is spent by the member states. Not many people know that non-member states, such as Switzerland and Norway, contribute to the EU's budget in return for access to the common market, and have to comply with the rules and regulations of the EU without having any say in their formulation. Not many people know the difference between a directive and a regulation. Critics of the EU complain about over-regulation. And yet the end of the Treaty of Paris, which regulated the coal and steel industries throughout the EU, passes unnoticed.
All of our group agreed that the book was clearly written and easy to read. On the other hand, one of our members said that he had learned absolutely nothing from it. Another described it as an agreeable autobiography, but reflecting his personal views to such an extent he thought that in reading the book he was reading his own mind. A majority found the book anglo-centric, although it was pointed out that all of the book group members present were English, living in France as of right because Britain is a member state of the EU. We are citizens of Europe. If Britain withdrew from the EU our position might change radically. Moreover, Britain is a major player on the world scene. The criticism might be more valid if the book had been Luxemburgo-centric.
Again, a majority of the group thought that the book showed its author, Chris Patten, to be "the wet" Mrs Thatcher thought he was, his career drifting from Cabinet minister to Governor of Hong Kong and from there to the European Commission and now Chancellor of Oxford University. Most thought that the voters of his constituency were right to turn him out of Parliament, probably because of his association with the poll tax, one of the most unpopular measures ever proposed. The majority criticised his book for raising many issues currently besetting foreign affairs, but not providing the answers. For example, is the new American doctrine of preventive war justified? Is there any justification for intervening in foreign states that disregard the human rights of their citizens? A lone voice held that you cannot condemn a book for failing to provide all the answers. Some of the questions are imponderable.
There was probably general agreement, however, that the book had been a good choice and well worth reading, finding the author's comments on the Far East insightful.
A civilized mind looks at the world. September 2, 2006
28 out of 29 found this review helpful
From 1999 to 2004 Chris Patten was a member of the European Commission with responsibility for its External Relations. The first half of this book deals with his views on Britain's relationship with the European Community. I am not an enthusiast for Brussels myself, but I found this a most eloquent critique of Euroscepticism. Some things come out very strongly: Lord Patten's admiration of post-war Germany and for Helmuth Kohl in particular, and his rightful contempt for the Germanophobia so widespread in Britain and so fanned by the popular press and television. He puts it down to the fact that the `British' victory over Germany is the last episode in British history of which Britons can be proud, so that they compulsively replay that reel over and over again. He is contemptuous of the Tory Party, which, having under Heath taken Britain into Europe, then became the home of what Patten considers illogical arguments about sovereignty (a concept he examines with masterful authority). He is equally scathing about the British illusion that there really is something like a Special Relationship with the United States. The USA actually wants Britain to have a closer relationship with the European Union, and makes no compromises with British interests whenever those diverge from those of the United States. And although Europe and the United States share many values and Europe owes much to the USA in politics and culture, this has, since the end of the First World War, always been counter-pointed with a strand of anti-Americanism in Europe. Patten examines the many ways in which Europe and America are very different, pointing, among other things, to the pervasive influence of religion in the US, to a nationalism which is more overt and assertive across the Atlantic than it is now in Western Europe, to a much more unrestrained capitalism, to national and individual attitudes to budget deficits, to gun-ownership and to capital punishment. On all these matters Patten much prefers the European way; and clearly the ascendancy of the gung-ho, unilateralist neo-cons - Patten has selected some choice quotations from Bush, Rumsfeld, and Bolton to this effect - has done nothing to make America more popular in Europe, - not to mention the USA opting out of Kyoto, insisting on immunity from the International Criminal Court, and flouting the Geneva Conventions at Guantanamo Bay. It is all such a far cry from the internationalist approach of Truman, Marshall and Eisenhower.
When he turns to discuss the European Union, Patten is duly critical of those ideologues who will not recognize that people rightfully value their national identity, and he points out that within the EU of course all the nations - even those, and perhaps particularly those who use the most European rhetoric - try to promote their own agenda. On the other hand, he writes that there is less corruption, waste and inefficiency in Brussels than in the administrations of most member states, and that since enlargement even the ideologues have realized that there must be a halt to the expansion of the powers of the Commission - a realization that, Patten says, was a key element of the recently rejected Constitution. And on the matter of enlargement, Patten makes an eloquent and multi-layered case for the eventual admission of Turkey to the EU.
While the first half of the book addresses issues that are in the forefront of Britain's relationship with the EU, in the second half we have Patten's views on wider issues with which the EU has to concern itself. He gives an account of the EU's involvement in the Balkans during the dreadful war there. He thinks that on the whole, after a humiliating start, EU policy there `worked pretty well' and he pays warm tribute to Lord Ashdown's work there as the UN's High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In the Middle East Patten thinks the EU should be firmer with the Israelis and therefore more independent of US policy. He also believes it is possible to do more to promote democracy and modernization in the Arab world, in part through more economic cooperation (and encouraging Arab countries to cooperate economically with each other, which they hardly do at present), and certainly not through force of arms or the double standards which value the democratic process only if it produces results that suit the West: he tells us (though without showing why) that does not `buy the argument that encouraging democracy in the Arab world only creates trouble'.
He thinks the EU should also be much tougher with Russia over a whole range of issues, and he deplores the way Schröder, Chirac, Berlusconi and Aznar have cosied up to Putin, who, over an episode in Chechnya for instance, has indulged in the most blatant lying Patten had ever come across: `He knew that we knew he was lying. He did not give a damn, and we all let him get away with it - on that occasion, and again and again.'
Critical though he is of China's human rights record, he has much more respect for the Chinese leadership, and sees the economic growth of China, not as a threat to the prosperity of the West, but, on the contrary, as ultimately in its interest, not to speak of the achievement of raising millions of Chinese out of poverty.
Patten is an exceptionally open-minded and broad-minded conservative. Much of what he says in this book is wise; very frequently it is witty, and sometimes waspish. But even those who feel stung by his remarks will be aware that they are engaged with a lively, thoughtful and stimulating mind.
Sensible Conservatism August 1, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is Chris Patten's round up on world affairs as he sees them, as he bows out of high-powered international politics.
He talks about the environment, the European Union, Tony Blair, Asia and there's lots on America, which he sees as a country which has done so much to improve the post-War world, but which is now in danger of making a mess of things.
He's a very engaging writer, and he writes loads of sensible stuff about the benefits of pooling sovereignty with the European Union. He's not afraid to show his scorn for the neo-cons and he analyses Tony Blair's rather bizarre relationship with conviction and truth. He can be quite caustic about the American people.
The reader appreciates his first-hand insights and wisdom. It's a book you can read on holiday and have no problem getting through it.
Not Quite the Diplomat February 3, 2006
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
A litterary masterpeice of the highest order from the most informed of mind regarding world affairsWho is better qualified than the former and last governor of Hong Kong to write a commentary on social affairs of Britain and the world. Patten weaves an intricate mix of national and international politics which is engaging, humerous and throughout completely true. A master of words and language, Chris Patten remains at the forefront of political literature.
An authoritive survey of world affairs - a must-read ! October 21, 2005
72 out of 76 found this review helpful
Interesting, incisive and often very witty, from 1st page to last. Chris Patten speaks with an insider's authority, and pulls no punches, on a wide range of areas - particularly the Conservative Party, Europe, the Middle East, Britains role in the world and American foreign policy under Bush, but with attention also to world poverty, Africa and Asia. A key and recurring theme is how US foreign policy has been high-jacked by the neo-cons with a world view which is damaging not only to the rest of the world but to the USA itself. On this, illuminating quotes from key players illuminate the analysis, and he is scathing about the Iraq War and how Blair followed the American lead without reference to Britain's true interests and without gaining any real influence in return. Patten proves himself a humane and intelligent guide to the world and its problems - the best such book I have read for a long time. It's well worth the money.
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