Progressive Foreign Policy

In May 1997, the then UK Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, famously said that foreign policy should have ‘an ethical dimension’, and that the Labour Government would ‘put human rights at the heart of foreign policy’. Although not described in these terms, these assertions were an attempt to articulate a ‘progressive’ conception of foreign policy for the UK.

But how does the foreign policy record of the Labour Government stand when set against these declared principles? What role have ethics re...