One of the biggest challenges facing the post-Iraq generation of foreign policy
decision-makers, like William Hague and Hillary Clinton, is to balance the pursuit of overseas stability with promotion of the dynamic and sometimes de-stabilising forces that build countries’
long-term stability and make economic and political progress possible.
This may sound like an academic question but it is a very real change- and not just because the SDSR has made the task of building overseas stability a key government objective.
Take Iraq. After having lost an admirably violence-free and largely fair election, it looks likely that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will cling to power and the voter-winner, Ayad Allawi, will be denied a role in government.
If that happens it will be because the US (and Iran) wanted al-Maliki to stay in power, favouring stability that the Iraqi leader has managed to create.
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