Stephen Haseler

Sidekick. Bulldog to Lapdog: British Global Strategy from Churchill to Blair Stephen Haseler First edition

Everyone is still asking: Why did Britain go to war in Iraq? Why did Prime Minister Blair support America at every turn? How has the bulldog become a lapdog? And, is Britain now forever just a part of the American empire? In his new book Sidekick Stephen Haseler answers these highly topical and urgent questions. Drawing on research over many years, and on his own experiences in public life on both sides of the Atlantic in London and Washington think-tanks, he outlines the key reasons for Britain's supine attitude towards the USA. Dr. Haseler suggests that it was Tony Blair's desperate need to become a 'celebrity world leader' that led him to become a 'sidekick' to America. He shows how this British 'sidekick' strategy goes back to 1940, and even beyond. And he also shows how the 'lingering imperial illusions' of Britain's official class has led them into becoming a subaltern of Washington in the American empire; and how Whitehall special interests - in the intelligence services and the military - are no longer independent, but serve this empire. Sidekick amounts to a history of how a whole post-war British political generation has turned Britain into a virtual province of the American empire - and in the process shunned improving our relationship with Europe. Finally, he argues that in the new century Britain needs to make a choice between, on the one hand, continuing in 'the unhealthy' relationship with Washington, and, on the other, making a real contribution to building Europe.