Prime Minister Tony Blair is the first world leader to meet the newly re-elected President Bush today in Washington. Blair walks a fine line. The British public’s opposition to the war in Iraq has him fighting for his political life at home. Blair is expected to press for a greater concentration on Middle East peace in part to persuade political opponents at home and critics in Europe that the U.S. alliance is worth defending.
It’s all part of an ongoing crisis of Western identity, according to historian Timothy Garton Ash. In his new book “Free World,” he describes Britain as the Western country that is most painfully torn between Europe and America. Hear a conversation with Garton Ash about Europe’s strategic options for dealing with a second Bush administration.
Guests:
Timothy Garton Ash, contemporary historian, author, director of the European Studies Centre and Gerd Bucerius Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary History of St. Antony’s College, Oxford University