Chris Patten

5182. Not Quite the Diplomat Home Truths about World Affairs, by Chris Patten (read 21 Jul 2014) This book was written in 2004 and 2005 and deals with world affairs of that era--dominated by the war in Iraq, which Patten cogently deplores. I knew Patten was the last British Governor of Hong Kong but this book is not about his time there, but rather about his time as a British member of the European Commission. He did a lot of hard work and traveled a lot. He shows how Bush's policies did much harm and suggests how the US could have a better standing in the world. But since the things he talks about are all in the past the book is mainly valuable to show the mistakes that Bush and Rumsfeld made when they were running things. I should have read the book 8 or 9 years ago. But it s a sprightly book and full of good observations.… (mehr)

Chris Patten is one of the nearly men of British politics. He has had a successful career, holding senior and important positions at critical times, throughout the world. Nevertheless, he has never seemed able to step into that top echelon even though many thought him capable and destined for the biggest roles. The UK’s answer to Al Gore, then.

In this book Patten applies himself to the ‘big’ questions everyone sees facing the world today – globalisation, economic collapse, water shortages, terrorism, drugs, climate change and others. Patten’s answers surprised me and revolve around two themes.

He firmly believes in the individual state (in whatever guise it may exist with liberal democracy by far his preferred choice) rather than larger, grander global organisations. In every way he believes the nation-state to be the best vehicle for working to the best interests of the people within the nation and for engaging and negotiating with all the other nation-states out there. He has worked in and seen fail far too many global organisations. So, no United Federation just yet.

His second theme is that the answers to all these problems already exist. We know what to do about all our ills, ranging from the application of new technologies through to just turning up and kicking ass. The key is to engender the collective will to go ahead and do these things. Without doubt some of these answers are not pretty and require us to do things we would rather not do. And how do we motivate ourselves to do the right thing when everyone else is partying on like it’s (still) 1999?

I expected this book to be a worthy, but stodgy, read, good for my health if not my taste buds. I was surprised to find Patten is very readable, funny (at least to my generation) and is able to explain and enlighten with an easy touch.

Barack Obama should have this on his nightstand.… (mehr)