Posted 24 April 2009 by David Miliband  |  2 comments

My argument at the 2009 Easter Banquet held in the city for the London diplomatic corps was that the combination of economic recession and new American administration created a unique double push to multilateralism. Britain's role is to be an activist coalition builder, using our values of social justice and responsibility to leverage international engagement.

I should have read Henry Kissinger's piece in the Washington Post  the same day. He sets out how concert diplomacy can work. "Common action grows out of shared convictions" he writes. He compares the approach to the situation after the Napoleonic Wars - nations working together to enforce international norms.

This is not the realism or idealism debate all over again. It is the response to interdependence.

David Miliband

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