Britain's 'delusions of grandeur'

By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent BBC News website

Tony Blair with troops in Iraq: "delusions" says historian about Iraq...

Britain is suffering from a "folie de grandeur" which has led to its armed forces being overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to historian Corelli Barnett.

He told a seminar at Churchill College, Cambridge on Thursday - held to celebrate his 80th birthday - that British commitments "were, and are, the lasting legacy of our transient world hegemony in the late-Victorian and Edwardian eras".

"At the present time," he said, "the British army and its air support are just too small to fight simultaneous large-scale guerrilla wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"In other words, a case of true overstretch. That is why our commitment in Iraq is being gradually cut back."

This always iconoclastic military writer has constantly argued that Britain's economic standing did not and does not justify its claim to be a major power.

He accused Britain's current and recent leadership (and Tony Blair in particular) of following in the footsteps of the British elite that wanted to be "house prefects to the world".

Savile Row suits

He castigated the prime minister who took Britain to war over Suez in 1956, Anthony Eden.

"He could no more imagine Britain giving up her inheritance as a great power because she was hard-up than, for a similar reason, having to exchange his Savile Row suits for ready-made reach-me-downs...

"In Eden's view, 'our world-wide commitments are inescapable.' Gordon Brown and David Cameron would probably say the same today. Tony Blair certainly did."

He scoffed at Britain's obsession with being at the "top table" and for not understanding its inferior role to that of the United States.

..and Afghanistan where British troops are increasingly engaged

Corelli "Bill" Barnett was speaking to an audience that included former senior politicians, military figures and civil servants, all of whom had been involved in the various defence reviews that have taken place since 1957.

In these reviews, governments tried to tackle the issue of what role Britain should play on the world stage and how to pay for it.

All agreed that with the end of the Cold War, Britain's armed forces are back in the business of expeditionary warfare - that is, the projection of armed force just about anywhere in the world.

Agreement...

Some agreed with Corelli Barnett that this was wrong. The former Conservative Defence Secretary Sir John Nott, who was in office during the Falklands war in 1982, said he accepted that Britain was suffering from delusions of grandeur.

"Yes we are. I agree with Corelli Barnett. It is nonsensical. We're doing far too much."

Another former Conservative Defence Secretary, Lord King, was not so sure. "It is very difficult politically to move from the top to the second table and keep public support for the armed forces. We ought to be prepared to play a part as a prosperous nation. We are right to contribute in Afghanistan. We do have some ability in that field, as part of a coalition," he said.

Lord King added that he had recommended to David Cameron that a future Conservative government should hold four-yearly defence reviews to overcome the stops and starts of the past.

...and disagreement

Some disagreed with the Barnett thesis. General Sir Mike Jackson, formerly Chief of the General Staff, told me: "We might have been suffering from delusions in the 1960s, but not now. We are among the four or five richest countries. Do we want to retreat into a fortress Britain and pull the duvet up over our heads and hope the bogeyman goes away?"

In Eden's view, 'our world-wide commitments are inescapable.' Gordon Brown and David Cameron would probably say the same today. Tony Blair certainly did Corelli Barnett

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Peter Harding urged that Britain should continue with its present role. "If you are what you are, you have a responsibility. We should act in our enlightened self-interest and we are worth our weight in gold in coalitions."

Another of Corelli's Barnett's targets was Britain's Trident nuclear missile system, which the government recently decided to renew. He called the programme "the supreme example of overstretch stemming from folie de grandeur".

Here, he found little support. The former British ambassador to Paris, Sir Ewen Fergusson, got a few laughs when he said he doubted if the British wanted the French to be the only nuclear-armed nation in Europe.

At the end, I asked Corelli Barnett about the discussion. He appeared unimpressed that fundamental questions had not been asked over the years. "Nobody gets down to question the givens," he said.

The arguments will go on. Britain is planning two aircraft carriers that will clearly increase the country's expeditionary capability.

Sir John Knott declared they were "unaffordable" at the estimated cost of £12 billion. But General Jackson said firmly: "I am a carrier man."

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