We Brits can be a sensitive bunch, especially where Americans are involved. Before his West Point speech in December 1962, I doubt that Dean Acheson, President Truman’s secretary of state, considered for a second that what he was about to say would knock the confidence of a generation of British statesmen. And yet with his throwaway line, ‘Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role,’ he summed up a period of soul-searching that began with Suez and continues in Whitehall to this day.
Few have had greater experience of Britain’s postwar navel-gazing than David Hannay, whose career at the Foreign Office has seen him play a key role in Westminster, Brussels and New York during some of the most important turning points in modern history. It is fitting that Hannay borrowed from Acheson’s speech for the title of his memoir: it has been an albatross around British diplomats’ necks for the past half-century.
Hannay is more self-aware than most. ‘Does the world really need another book of diplomatic memoirs,’ he asks, ‘A genre which many may feel is already oversubscribed and which has a tendency to trivialisation and self-justification?’ After reading Britain’s Quest for a Role, the answer would seem to be yes, but only just. Hannay’s views will be valuable for politicians and policymakers alike, not least because of his unrivalled experience of multilateral diplomacy. Chapters on the European Union, in particular, will be useful for the current crop of UK policymakers grappling with internecine battles in Brussels. Hannay’s accounts of squabbles with fellow member states, along with his depiction of the delicate balancing act between domestic constituencies and international interests, are undoubtedly prescient. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
The book’s many ‘from the coal face’ descriptions of detailed negotiations may prove a little dry for some. Though Hannay builds a compelling picture of the discussions that shaped modern Europe, as well as developments at the UN during the pivotal post-cold war period of 1990-95, he is less prone to the anecdotal flourishes found in other diplomatic memoirs. This lends the book a serious, almost dour tone. The reader is left with the impression that multilateralism, while terribly important, is not particularly fun.
The final chapters of the book find Hannay reaching for conclusions from his five decades of service. His closing thoughts – on everything from the financial crisis to climate change – are restrained and nuanced, as you would expect from a man trained to find the grey areas and commonalities required for constructive agreement. However, with his cautious style, Hannay often strays dangerously close to stating the obvious (‘… the relationship between Britain and the United States will inevitably remain a crucial one for Britain’) and seems to be pulling his punches. Even his closing gripe at the proliferation of ‘special political advisers’ feels a little limp: ‘I fear this is not a positive development and is one whose consequences are not well understood.’
Britain’s Quest for A Role is a welcome addition to the canon of diplomatic memoirs because the author’s extensive experience of multilateral negotiations is worthy of historical documentation. However, Hannay’s measured approach means he is unable to draw a line under the collective angst triggered by Acheson’s speech all those years ago.
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Greg Falconer is a foreign policy expert and former Whitehall civil servant. He tweets at @gregfalconer