Rather than dismiss or mock these allegations, Whitehall should capitalize on this huge exaggeration of Britain's influence. The almost certain strategic defense review to be conducted next year following national elections is the perfect vehicle to use this misperception more broadly to enable Britain to fight well above its "weight class" measured by its military capabilities and resources devoted to national security and foreign policy.

The current mood in Whitehall is bleak. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan along with a struggling economy and a sinking government have sapped morale. The hijacking of sailors and marines in the Persian Gulf by Iranian revolutionary guardsmen last year further tarnished Britain's international reputation. And the size of its military, no matter how able, is smaller than the U.S. Marine Corps.

With about 173,000 people in uniform, that is still below the authorized level of 180,000. The annual defense budget of some $60 billion is likely to remain capped for several years given budget debts and deficits that are far larger percentages of GDP than in the United States. That means large cuts will be required intensifying already fierce inter-service disputes and rivalries. And should the Conservatives win the next election, that leadership has not always been favorably disposed towards the military.

Whether there is a defense review, Britain faces two basic choices regarding the role it can or will play internationally. First, Britain can continue as a "first team or first division" player in the U.N. Permanent Five, NATO and other international organizations along with the United States. Or, as argued in the 19th century, Britain could become a "little England," reducing its international commitments and responsibilities and turning inward, possibly dismantling its nuclear deterrent as obsolete and too expensive.

Assuming the first view prevails, Britain must not be overly constrained by its relatively modest and probably declining military power. Thus, it will have to box well above its weight class. That means dealing with perplexing "what if's" from an Argentine government bent on reoccupying the Falklands to a resurgent Russia or aggressive China. With a navy that owns only two relatively small aircraft carriers, about two dozen destroyers and frigates and seven amphibious ships and overstretched ground forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere, duplicating the exploits of 1982 would be a bridge too far let alone facing states with far greater military strength.

Here is where the mullahcracy of Tehran provides an unwitting solution. British strategist B.H. Liddell Hart called for an "indirect approach." Britain can build on Hart's strategy by creating or finding means for magnifying its influence to complement, replace or substitute for diminished physical capabilities. The starting point is intellectual and through assessing the global scene afresh to determine where Britain's influence can have potentially disproportionate positive impact. On this basis, Britain can begin crafting a strategy that applies intellect and strategic innovation to leverage physical capabilities.

Examples abound. Success in Afghanistan, almost no matter how low the bar is set, depends on Pakistan defeating its insurgency. Since the outside world is unlikely to find sufficient resources to assure Pakistan's success, this gap must be filled by other means. Obviously a slackening of tensions between India and Pakistan will permit the Pakistani army to turn west in fuller force to take on the insurgents and extremists. Surely, innovative British diplomacy with India and possibly with China too can facilitate a rapprochement. Similarly, Turkey can play a far more decisive role in the Middle East and South Asia that Britain can stimulate should it choose.

Fighting above one's weight is not dependent on military force. However, the British military in many ways is better prepared for this type of thinking than its sister agencies because of its broader recent experiences in the field and its superior programs for educating its leaders. With or without (but better with) a strategic defense review, such thinking is essential. But neither the Labor nor Conservative parties has sufficient numbers of dedicated people for this task, and the other branches of government are too small or lack the resources.

A new era of Rule Britannia, admittedly in a more subdued and refined state, could surely emerge. If it does, the Iranian clerics will have inadvertently created the momentum for a better way of thinking. And that thinking might even migrate its way to America and influence the U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review that will soon be getting under way.

(Harlan Ullman is a distinguished senior fellow at the National Defense University and a senior adviser at the Atlantic Council.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

earlier related report
Atlantic Eye: Leadership springs from evil
by Marc S. Ellenbogen for UPI
Leadership comes in many forms. Often it springs from a crisis -- often from evil. Normal people become heroes. The collapse of communism and Nazism was an end. It was also a beginning.

Last week I had lunch at London's Oxford and Cambridge Club with Sir Michael Burton. Sir Michael was deputy commandant of the British Military Government and the last British minister in divided Berlin. He was assistant undersecretary of state for the Middle East and ambassador to Prague from 1994 to 1997. He is, like me, a Magdalen man.

Michael is a quiet hero. He is down to earth -- a man of common means who has worked behind the scenes with little public credit sought. As a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George he has been honored by those who recognized his indispensability.

"Leaders," said Sir Michael, "see problem situations where others don't."

This is true of Prince Radu of Romania. Prince Radu is running as an Independent presidential candidate in Romania. He spoke to assembled guests at the Royal Over-Seas League. "We have many problems in Romania. … I will focus on agriculture; infrastructure and motorways. … We cannot ignore the Roma minority -- there are 2.9 million Roma and we pretend they don't exist; we must manage our relationship with Moldova and with Hungarians in Romania better.

"The president must be ethical and professional. He must stay within the areas defined by the constitution. … I am running to espouse the values of democracy, not monarchy. I will respect the constitution. … I will represent the state -- the people -- not a political party."

Radu is a man the Romanians should support.

In Terezin, 10 days later, the air is stifling and thick. A dark foreboding tension hangs over what was once a normal Czech town. Theresienstadt -- Nazi Germany managed to make the town a symbol of annihilation. But from the ashes of the past, from the sickness of genocide, a new future arises.

Today, the last day of the 5th Holocaust Era Assets Conference after Washington, Stockholm, Rome and Berlin, the venue is the Riding Hall of Terezin -- the former German show camp from which tens of thousands were deported to death camps. Bright minds and talents were wiped from the face of the Earth. Culture was obliterated, replaced by diabolical theater. In the 1940s smoke and mirrors masking genocide was certified by the Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross as perfectly normal. Only recently has the ICRC apologized after resisting for decades.

Stuart E. Eizenstat, the official U.S. delegate to the Assets conference, is a man of numerous talents and of great seriousness of purpose. Global Panel and the Prague Society hosted him and J. Christian Kennedy, the U.S. government's special envoy on Holocaust Issues, at a small reception days earlier at the lovely Crown Plaza Prague Castle. Eizenstat served Presidents Carter and Clinton in senior positions -- as chief domestic policy adviser, ambassador, undersecretary of state, undersecretary of commerce and finally deputy treasury secretary -- he is a man who knows public policy well.

Eizenstat, a friend and mentor who I have known for more than two decades, is introduced by Princess Elizabeth Lobkowics, whose property was confiscated by the Communist Czech regime and returned later after a hard fight. She is an honest lady; salt of the earth. Eizenstat has spent 30 years fighting for the assets of those disenfranchised -- Jewish and non-Jewish alike. "We must move quickly or those dispossessed will have all perished. … The Holocaust was a war within a war. … We must put this in the mind of young people to prevent further genocide -- like the type happening in Darfur.

"Even my own beloved America made serious mistakes. We did not open the border to refugees. This was a sign to Hitler that the world doesn't care. During the ensuing years many of the victims became footnotes. It is disgraceful. There are abject poor people living in New York today who had all their assets stolen by Hitler's regime."

Eizenstat had written a memo in April 1978 suggesting President Carter create the President's Commission on the Holocaust. With Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate as chair, the Commission began its work that would culminate in the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial. It is the third most visited site in Washington.

"During the Carter presidency we learned from these mistakes. We issued special visas for Iranian refugees. Human rights became a primary focus."

Today in Terezin, "there was hardly a dry eye," said Cyprus Ambassador Achilleas Antoniades, after the Defiant Requiem, directed by Dean Murry Sidlin of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at the Catholic University in Washington, closed the conference.

The communists saw the Holocaust as a footnote in history and did less than nothing to preserve its memory.

Nazism and communism are the flip-side of the same coin.

Leadership often springs from evil.

(UPI International Columnist Marc S. Ellenbogen is chairman of the Berlin, Copenhagen and Sydney-based Global Panel Foundation and president of the Prague Society. He has advised political candidates and is a founding trustee of the Democratic Expat Leadership Council.)

(e-mail: [email protected])

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