The Five Conservative Vying to be Britain's Next Prim Minister

Alright I'll be completely honest I don't know if this cartoon has anything to do with the article but its funny... even though I honestly don't really get it.

International news has become so inundated by the British exit from the European Union, in shorthand Brexit, that perhaps I had no other choice but to cover it for my analysis. Following the dramatic resignation of David Cameron as prime minister and the subsequent announcement of Boris Johnson that he will not be seeking the leadership of the conservative party, the British Conservative party is in peril and just who will be the next prime minister of the Conservative party controlled parliament the future remains anyone’s guess.

Outlined in the article are five candidates for the position that will perhaps be left vacant until early September, notable most of the candidates were for the exit and none vow to stay in the European Union. While the names may be a bit unfamiliar to American readers, well unless they are Anglophiles, they all have an impressive resume, from a seemingly popular former reporter Michael Gove, who is perhaps the favored candidate, to more staunchly conservative Theresa May, the race for party leadership should promise to be quite an exciting moment of politics, and perhaps a welcome break from our own presidential race (is it November yet? Seriously).

Britain’s decision to depart from the European Union is a bit of a surprise to many, predicated on trade restrictions, national autonomy, and immigration (the EU calls for open borders) many had expected that Great Britain would remain in the European Union. The European Union is perhaps one of the newer vestiges of the international liberalism that began with Woodrow Wilson following the end of the First World War. Having blamed the Great War on the rampant nationalism of European nations, as well as the tangled secret peace treaties and alliances between competing nations, which preceded the war.

Liberal internationalism calls for transnational transparency and cooperation. The European Union is also typical of the liberal institutions such as the emphasis of rule by law rather than national self-interest, which is one of its larger contrasting points with realism. With basic principles being predicated on universal human rights on the European continent, sound trade principals, common currency and shared economic interests between European nations, The EU attempts (or soon perhaps attempted with rumblings of a French and even German exit the future of the European Union is anything but certain) to put into practice the liberal idea that what is good for the whole is good for the part, while the Realist may balk at idea in typical pessimism, liberal institutions take self-interest on a broader scale. The European Union was seen as a triumph to liberal idealists as the end of European nationalism in favor of a system of collective security among nations, yet the dramatic and undoubtedly historic departure of Great Britain from the Union may just see an untimely end to these ambitions.

I got fifty on Gove!

While our textbook, showing just how much times had changed since the Bush years, had essential proclaimed the end of nationalism as fait acompli, the post-recession years have seen a dramatic increase of nationalistic rhetoric from world leaders and politicians. Right wingers and Realists have seized growing hot button issues such as immigration, refugee crises, and global austerity as part and parcel for ambitions platforms that have only waxed in popularity. Nationalism is once again rearing its ugly head in global politics, the idea of exiting NATO, scaling global trade, as well as exiting the European Union were formerly fringe political positions and are now becoming more and more popular with voting constituencies in the world’s democracies. With the Brexit the world has perhaps not seen the end of the dismantling of many of the liberal institutions that were birthed from the European continental struggles of the first and second world wars.

The future of British leadership is not only vital for the nation but also for the global community as well. As the nationalistic push for a more realist centered global policy, Great Britain could be seen as a potential Guinea pig for renewed nationalistic and isolationist fervor in global politics. The daunting task of steering the nation from what could either be declared a crisis, as today’s liberal idealists were more than wont to do following the events of June 23^rd, or a new direction in international politics, it remains to be seen. The exit from the European Union will take years and will be a very complicated process, the exit could make or break the Conservative party in the UK and these five candidates will have quite a challenge ahead of them. 

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/world/europe/conservative-party-candidates.html