Blair hitch project: how Clinton's ideological fellow traveler became Bush's closest ally.

• Author: Baer, Kenneth S.
• Position: On Political Books

"Be his friend. Be his best friend. Be the guy he turns to." That was the advice Bill Clinton gave his close ally and ideological fellow traveler, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, weeks before Clinton was to hand over the reins of power to George W. Bush.

In the annals of diplomacy, it's not the most sophisticated theory of great-power politics, but it proved to be effective. In their first joint news conference in February 2001, when asked if the two leaders had anything in common, Bush responded that they both used Colgate toothpaste. Many--including those in Blair's inner circle--thought that dentifrice was the beginning and end of the discussion. After all, Blair was not only Clinton's buddy and contemporary, at ease among the cosmopolitan elites of Britain and the United States; he was the co-architect of the "Third Way" progressive response to the conservatism that Bush held dear. More than that, as National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice explained to a British official early in his term, "You should really know, the President doesn't feel comfortable with Europeans. He much prefers Latin Americans."

Despite his lack of Hispanic heritage, Blair and the new president did become friends, and their bond deepened after the attacks of September 11. Bush had no stronger ally in the buildup to and invasion of Iraq than Blair. He withstood defections from his party's backbenches, protests in the streets of London, and growing alienation from his allies in Western Europe to back the United States. In the run-up to the war, Vice President Cheney, in the words of one Blair aide, "waged a guerrilla war" against the British prime minister's desire to pass another U.N. resolution before the invasion. The Pentagon locked Britain out of post-war planning for Iraq, and it seemed that every time that Bush got in trouble--such as when questions arose surrounding his claim that Iraq tried to acquire nuclear material from Niger--he blamed the British. Yet through it all, Blair never wavered in his support for Bush's plans.

How and why Bill Clinton's best friend became Bush's is part of the fascinating and important story Philip Stephens tells in his new biography, Tony Blair: Making of a World Leader. Stephens, a long-time Blair watcher and senior editor at the Financial Times, provides in this lively, intelligent, and accessible book valuable insight into Blair's background and political ideology. He deftly traces the are of Blair's commitment to "community" from his spiritual awakening at Oxford to his...