Riddell’s new book, “Hug Them Close: Blair, Clinton, Bush and the ‘Special Relationship’,” reveals how the British leader’s triangulations of Europe and America began almost from the day he became prime minister. In 1997 Blair had seen intelligence reports on Saddam’s ambitions and soon became fervently convinced of the need for action. As America and Europe bickered over their strategy for the Balkans, Blair tried to persuade both Bill Clinton and European leaders to take concrete steps to deal with the threat from Iraq. Despite his close ideological ties to Clinton, however, Blair made little headway on this front until George W. Bush was elected in 2000.
The explanation, according to Riddell, lies both in Blair’s political personality and in the lessons he learned the hard way from dealing with Clinton. The Blair-Clinton relationship comes across as awkward, even “edgy,” with Blair exhausted by Bubba’s ego, and resentful of the American statesman’s constant attempts to play the wise elder and guru of the Third Way. From his earliest forays into politics, Blair has always been an “instinctive” politician, argues Riddell, rather than an intellectual one. Enter Dubya, the back-slapping Texan who speaks his mind and follows his convictions, and you have one of the most unlikely political friendships of our time.
“Hug Them Close” will disappoint anyone looking for salacious revelations about the transatlantic relationships Blair has formed. It is simply a collection of considered reflections put forth by a man with decades of access to the policymaking establishment on both sides of the pond. Committed to liberal humanitarian values and international treaties, but filled with an innate sense of righteousness, Blair has turned out to be as much at home with the neocons as he is with the European intelligentsia. If Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus, concludes Riddell, then Tony Blair is the earthling in the middle, forever building bridges.
