Interview on The Today Programme

Transcript of BBC RADIO 4 Interview

13 September 2001

Let’s talk about what lies ahead. Chris Patten is the EU Commissioner for External Relations. Mr Patten, good morning.

Good morning.

You said, on Tuesday, that it was one of those few days in our lives when we could actually say that everything would be changed. In your own mind, what lies ahead for us, over the next couple of years?

I think it’s pretty clear. I think we need unprecedented levels and degrees of co-operation, not just in dealing with terrorism and the terrorist threat but also dealing, in general, with what I guess you can call the dark side of globalisation, from drugs and transmittable diseases to crime and terrorism. I think that what this attack on the symbols of some of the… some of the best aspects of globalisation: prosperity, open markets and so on, I think this attack demonstrates the importance of us all working together in coalition with the United States to deal with some of the threats to our world.

Is the kind of alliance that you’re talking about one that can include countries, for example, in the Middle East, who have differences with the United States on policy in the Middle East, in some cases profound differences, but who are appalled and, indeed, frightened by what happened in New York?

Of course. It’s extremely important that we make it abundantly clear that the values that we want to defend are universally valid, and we have to reach out to Arab countries, to Russia, to China, we have to reach out right across the world. Otherwise, the sort of predictions made by the American political scientist, Samuel Huntingdon, about the clash of civilisations, have become self-fulfilling, and that is something we have to avoid. And I think it’s patronising to suggest that some American public officials don’t understand that. I mean, many of the American public officials who are wrestling with this drama, with this tragedy, are exactly the same officials who helped to mobilise the coalition during the gulf war. They understand the importance of international Cupertino, and we can only deal with this menace to our world if we actually put together, diplomatically, through conflict prevention as well as through security measure, a real coalition of the decent against the forces of darkness.

Chris Patten, thanks.