There are some journalists whose work I always try to read, and Timothy Garton Ash is one of them. I find his civilised, liberal, historically-grounded analysis of contemporary issues valuable in my own sense-making. He wrote at the end of last week about 'the West' – well, that bit of it that classical liberals, like me, like to think has its roots in the Enlightenment. This is how his Guardian article ends:
In my 2004 book, Free World, I argued that the great global challenges we face, from a rising China through a traumatised Middle East all the way to climate change, cannot be addressed without close cooperation between the US and the EU, the world’s two largest assemblages of the rich and free. However, this should only be the kernel of a wider partnership with all those who share some basic values and interests, be they in India, Brazil or South Africa, in what I dubbed the “post-west”.
I believe this analysis remains fundamentally correct. Even with the national plans recently blessed in Paris, global warming will probably exceed the 2C target. China, under the neo-Maoist leadership of President Xi Jinping, is not emerging gently into a global leadership role. We face a revanchist, reactionary Russia, one which shares with Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen the goal of taking apart the EU. What a great moment to give up on the west.
The west, with Europe and North America at its core, has many sins to its account. But the vision of the west put forward by Obama is a genuinely liberal internationalist one, which pays much more attention than earlier versions to the needs of the global south. The real-life alternative is not something more progressive, but rather some ghastly amalgam of Putin, Trump and Le Pen: the Putrumpen.
Internationalist Obama or nationalist Putrumpen: which would you prefer? I’d call that a no-brainer.
Maybe, but it might depend on whether Obama puts us at the back of the queue for his attention. My interest in all this is not just about climate change and wider environmental, economic and social issues tied to it, but about how we, in the UK, can best address all these problems as the future unfolds. That is, in the near term, it's also about the forthcoming referendum on Brexodus. It's all grist to the powder mill inside my brain whose output will decide where my vote goes.
For me, it boils down to two questions: what's likely to be best for my grandchildren and those who come after them, and how best to play an effective and positive internationalist role on the global stage. I don't find the answer at all obvious.
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