Washington Changed. British Diplomacy Failed to Keep Pace.
When I first moved to Washington, I couldn’t get the special relationship out of my head. I kept thinking of Margaret Thatcher in the Rose Garden and the smile of Tony Blair. I was utterly sure I’d get special attention here, with everything I knew about Westminster, simply because I was British.
But a few years living in this town, watching American eyes glaze over the moment I mentioned Brexit, taught me some hard facts about British influence in D.C. The past was another Washington.
Britain isn’t especially good at navigating the American capital. The British Embassy, for all its dinners and charming diplomats, is nothing like the mini-State Department that Whitehall is imagines it to be, feeding and editing U.S. policy. In fact, it has been genteelly fading in influence for years.
So I can hardly say I was shocked by hounding of Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador who has now resigned. Darroch was ridiculed as a Bertie Wooster-like figure (“a pompous
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days