British Foreign Policy Towards The I.R. Iran With Special Reference To The Two Main British Governing Parties: 2000-2015
British Foreign Policy Towards
The I.R. Iran With Special
Reference To The Two Main
British Governing Parties:2000-2015
In this article, concentration shall be on the policy ideas and political attitudes of the two main British governing parties towards the Islamic Republic of Iran during 2000-2015.
For quite a long time the United Kingdom has been alternately governed by the Conservative Party or the Labour Party.
“Originally a two-party system evolved for historical reasons as early as the seventeenth century; and it has been maintained partly by the electoral system which penalises minority parties,” such as the Liberal-Social Democratic Alliance in the 1987 General Election. “It is also maintained, though, because it is seen to possess valuable attributes.”2
One might add that the two-party system is, in fact, the key to understanding how the Constitution really works; it is responsible for six of its characteristics: “the near certainty that one party or the other will have a clear majority in the House of Commons (the lower chamber of the British Parliament); the consequent formation of a Cabinet drawn from the majority party; the stability of this Cabinet, since its majority is guaranteed; the durability of this Cabinet for the full term of the Parliament’s life; the unambiguous responsibility of the Cabinet for what happens during its term of office; and the presentation to the electorate of a clear choice between the government party and the opposition.”3
The British Labour Party’s Foreign Policy Analysis Towards the I.R. Iran: 2000-2015
The article can now proceed with the attitudes and policy ideas of the British Labour Party’s foreign policy towards the Islamic Republic Iran in the beginning of the twenty first century.
It is essential to bring into our attention the Labour Party’s foreign policy doctrine. Although, as any other party in British policies, economic considerations are a principal cause of policies, ideological factors play a leading role in influencing Labour leaders in formulating their policies.
“The Labour party always considered itself primarily a socialist party and only to a limited extent as Marxist. Its organization and doctrine grew out of the pragmatically oriented British trade-union movement and an old humanitarian Christian reform ideal, which at times entered a phase of social and political radicalism and took over the liberal inheritance. This characteristic tradition of the British working-class movement, which survived in years to come in spite of the adoption of some Marxist theories, also determined the Labour Party’s foreign policy.”4
