Michael Keaney

Book Review: International History: Hugh Wilford, The CIA, the British Left and the Cold War: Calling the Tune? (London: Frank Cass, 2003, 328pp., £45.00 hbk., £18.50 pbk.)

The four chapters discuss the central tension within New Labour between a need, on one hand, to respect tradition as part of the populist and pragmatic appeal of New Labour, while, on the other hand, seeking to retain a kind of new social democratic purpose, which intrinsically implies some form of modernity. Thus, we witness these dilemmas in New Labour’s constitutional reform programme, its implementation of welfare-to-work and the New Deal, and its potentially conservative communitarian and family policies. In summing up, Driver and Martell seek to outline what they think makes Blairism a distinctive postThatcherite and post-social democratic ideology, but their conclusion — that Blairism is pragmatic, patriotic, economically competent, workoriented, supportive of public service reforms, pro-health and education, and actively European — is not particularly revelatory. In short, Blair’s Britain provides a useful, knowledgeable and accessible introduction to British politics under Tony Blair, but it fails to go much further.

Book Review: Guglielmo Carchedi, For Another Europe: A Class Analysis of European Economic Integration (London: Verso, 2001, 310 pp., £17.00 pbk.)

of enhancing its regional role has been borne out. The NATO-Ukraine Charter (1997), the NATO-Russia Founding Act (1997) and the new ‘NATO at 20’ arrangement (2002) demonstrate this. However, the content of these relationships will be determined by the willingness to participate meaningfully. Margarita Balmaceda, the editor of this volume, should be commended for a very interesting study. On the Edge is a useful read. For the student of Central Europe in the 1990s, it will provide good insights into the foreign policy thinking of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.