Rupert Cornwell: PM must not be blinded by the might of America

In his article in The Wall Street Journal, previewing his first meeting here with President Obama yesterday, the Prime Minister said all the right things.

Relations between Britain and the US, David Cameron correctly observed, were absurdly over-scrutinised, picked over by analysts with a zeal once reserved for decoding the mysteries of the Kremlin. The two countries were bound to have their differences. They were natural and battle-tested allies, he noted, but Britain obviously was the junior partner.

The question is, can he put this "hard-headed and realistic" approach into practice? In other words, can he resist the White House dazzle?

During his Washington visits, Tony Blair was always visibly thrilled to share the stage with the most powerful man in the world. Alas, his determination to march in lockstep with the US led Britain into the utterly avoidable disaster of Iraq, earning him the label of "Bush's poodle". Mr Blair, of course, was not the first British Prime Minister to find it more agreeable to discuss the great issues of war and peace in the Oval Office than to haggle with French, Germans, Poles and Greeks into the early hours in Brussels over the minutiae of some arcane EU issue. Just ask Margaret Thatcher.

But if ever there was a moment to put Mr Cameron's avowed philosophy into practice, it is now. Although recent British ambassadors here have banned staff from using the term, the official demythologising of the "special relationship" began in earnest in March, when the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee concluded that the phrase was "potentially misleading" and "its use should be avoided".

Amen to that. The problem is that the "special relationship" has been verbally resurrected by Mr Obama himself, even though he has fewer sentimental ties to Britain than his predecessors and removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office (a sin for which the Tory press in London has never forgiven him).

But Mr Cameron should not take the bait. This doesn't mean he should keep Mr Obama at arms length. If they strike up a close personal relationship, so much the better. Leaders who trust and like each other can do business more quickly and effectively than those who do not. But Mr Cameron must not be blinded by the reflected might of the American presidency.

Right now, that should not be too difficult. Mr Obama is preoccupied by domestic issues and is not seeking sidekicks for a new international adventure. His concern is to pull US troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and rebuild the economy at home. Even on Iran, the most dangerous challenge he faces, his instincts are cautious. Mr Cameron, therefore, faces no litmus test of loyalty.

His visit is overshadowed by the two BP controversies: the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and allegations BP lobbied for the transfer to Libya of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. Washington and London also disagree on the urgency of tackling budget deficits. But BP and economic policy differences are reminders that the countries can be close allies without being joined at the hip.

View from the US: 'He's no Gordon Brown, but there's a long way to go'

Lloyd Grove The Daily Beast

Cameron and Obama might want a family therapist, if sovereign nations can make use of such services... The long-vaunted "special relationship" between the United Kingdom and the United States has seldom been more tetchy and irritable. The new prime minister, of course, is no Gordon Brown — a dour Scot with no gift for small talk. Cameron is young and charming, and on several previous meetings, he and Obama were very simpatico... but there is a litany of substantive sore points.

Nile Gardiner The National Review

David Cameron has the skill and charisma to build up a powerful partnership with Washington, but must be careful to maintain British interests while doing so... Cameron should be under no illusions that the current US president is pro-British in outlook, or has much empathy at all for the Anglo-American alliance. While building ties with the White House, he must look beyond the current administration in his meetings on Capitol Hill, and seek to engage with conservative leaders in Congress, who may hold the balance of power in Washington after this November.

Matt Browne Politico

The Obama-Cameron relationship is not a special partnership in the mold of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan or Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. True, the Cameron-Obama friendly scenes do mark a dramatic shift in the two nations' public relations strategies. Consider that Obama's advisers never afforded photo ops like these to Britain's former prime minister, Gordon Brown. Unfortunately, this is little more than stagecraft... On closer inspection, the forced bonhomie between the two looks more like the declarations of love that elderly married couples give publicly to friends and family after a turbulent spell in their relationship. All while they privately negotiate an amicable divorce.

Leslie H. Gelb President Emeritus of the Council of Foreign Relations and author of Power Rules

America's ties with Britain, Western Europe, and Japan must be the basis of U.S. foreign policy. These nations, then and now, most share America's interests and values. Even today, these nations comprise the great majority of economic, military, and diplomatic power in the world. The rebuilding of America's economy must start with Western Europe and Japan today, as it did after World War II. Those countries remain the most compatible with the United States. Washington will not be able to work with "the new major powers" like India, China, and

Brazil anywhere near to the same degree. So, to me, the visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron was a great opportunity to reset

US foreign policy on its strongest course -- not as the old "special relationship," but as a key part of the three-cornered alliance that won the Cold War and can help shape the new world order.

Sally McNamara Senior Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation

It has been quite some time since a US-UK summit has been watched as closely as the Obama-Cameron meeting in Washington on Tuesday. Although both leaders have met each other on previous occasions, there is nothing quite like a Prime Ministerial visit to the White House to gather the world’s press. The war in Afghanistan must stay at the top of the Obama-Cameron agenda. To his great credit, David Cameron has aggressively defended the war to the British people amid declining popular support; Obama’s stated withdrawal date of July 2011 only gives the impression that he is looking for the nearest exit—just in time for his 2012 reelection campaign. The Prime Minister was also forced to answer questions about the release from a Scottish prison of Lockerbie. Congressional hearings are already scheduled to look into the al Megrahi’s affair and David Cameron can not afford to let this issue fester. He must stand behind his previous call for an independent inquiry and get to the bottom of what exactly happened.

Peter Reid Vice President for Strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

David Cameron set exactly the right tone before and during his visit to Washington, warning off the British media from their obsession with perceived US slights to the cringingly-named “special relationship”, and laying out the fundamental reasons why the relationship was, is and will remain strong. His op-ed for the Wall Street Journal was a remarkably frank and honest take. The truth is that the two countries need to work together, more than ever, on the full range of critical issues confronting the world. As two of the world’s most open economies, both need the global market to recover as quickly as possible. A global climate deal will remain elusive until the big two – China and the US confront their domestic policies and practices. The UK has set a reasonable example here. Both countries face challenges so huge in Afghanistan that they urgently need to, yet again, redefine success. Iran and North Korea make the breakdown of the nuclear regime and the addition of many – not just two – more nuclear states a real possibility. The probability of another terrorist attack looms over both and other nations. The list is a long and daunting one. Of course personal chemistry is important in political relationships, but with mature, confident personalities like Barack Obama and David Cameron, it is refreshing hope, particularly for Britain, that this relationship will be based on business first.