Statecraft:  Strategies For A Changing World, by Margaret Thatcher

You can do a lot worse, and not much if at all better, when it comes to reading about geopolitics, than to take a look at what Margaret Thatcher had to say about them.  This book is an insightful collection of material written in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center that demonstrates Thatcher’s firm grasp of realism when it comes to looking at the world.  The author also manages to provide a way forward for Brits that indicates her support of what would later become the Brexit movement as she writes at considerable length about the problems of subordinating a powerful Britain to the follies and errors of European bureaucratic socialism.  Indeed, it is difficult to see many observers with a more clear-eyed view to the geopolitical issues of our time, whether she examines the problems of refugees and immigration to the problem of European and other identities to radical Islam and the problems involved in the rise of China.  The scope of this book and the soundness of the author’s analysis makes this a book that is still well worth reading and pondering over many years after it was written, which cannot be said for many policy books like this one.

This book of more than 450 pages is divided into eleven chapters that deal with different concerns faced by the author and the world and by British and American conservatives.  The author begins, after a list of illustrations, maps, and tables, acknowledgments, and an introduction, with a discussion of the Cold War and how it ended (1).  After that there is a look at the American achievement and the author’s praise for Reagan (2).  After this there is a discussion of the Russian enigma and the struggles Russia has faced in seeking to strengthen its own national identity and push its weight in the near abroad (3).  After this comes a look at Asian values in Southeast Asia and the importance of encouraging a friendly and powerful Japan (4) while also dealing with the Asian giants of India and China (5).  The author turns her attention to rogue states like North Korea and Iran as well as to the problem of Muslim terrorism (6) and also looks at how conservatives can deal with human rights and wrongs (7) in a thoughtful and politically successful manner.  After that the author discusses the problems of the Balkans (8) as well as the dreams and nightmares of Europe (9) and Britain’s ambivalent relationship with it.  Finally, the book ends a discussion of the need for Britain to renegotiate its relationship with the EU (10) and a discussion of Capitalism and its critics (11) before closing with a look at civil rights and Runnymede and an index.

There is something to be said for Thatcher’s view of statesmanship as statecraft.  This implies a certain degree of skill that must be acquired in order to safely sail the ship of state in dangerous waters, an attention to the real conditions of the outside world that are frequently adverse, and a recognition that ideas, whether true or false, whether good or bad, have serious consequences in the world in which we live.  The author does a great job at providing some ideas of what could be done in order to deal with some of those adverse conditions and provides a way forward for the UK and US in such a way that it ought to warm the hearts of conservatives in both nations and around the world.  The course of history for the last couple of decades vindicates Thatcher’s insights, even though she is no longer among us to write about the times in which we live.  And those insights remain in this book (and others by the author) so that readers can profit from what she wrote, making this an enduring and worthwhile book about geopolitics from someone who was well-equipped to know it well.