A Study Of Labour's Foreign Policy

The Labour Representation Committee ( LRC) was founded in 1900 as the joint effort of trade unions and socialist groups such as the Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). This socialist legacy leaves its print on Labour's foreign policy making and implementation. The socialists or the "left" within the party are identified with an internationalist and moral character which often challenges the more realistic attitude adopted by the "right" of the Labour party. Through a detailed survey of the foreign policies carried out by the seven Labour governments, this thesis draws the conclusion that there exists a conflict between the Left's ideological intention to be moral and international and the right's more realistic and competitive government operations in Labour's foreign policy making. The Labour party went through a process of modernization during the 1990s. Clause four of the Constitution was removed under the leadership of Tony Blair. It seems that the New Labour is operating along centre-right line. Even so, the first Foreign Secretary Robin Cook still identified strongly with the socialist tradition of the old Labour party in conducting foreign affairs while the second foreign secretary in Blair's administration, Jack Straw, is standing more closely with the prime minister who is keener to enforce the leading role of Britain on the world stage through actively engaging in a series of regional and world organizations such as the EU, the NATO and the UN. The constraint and compromise tradition of the Labour Party continues even under Tony Blair's New Labour.