Robin Cook (politician)

Robin Cook (December 1997)

Robert Finlayson Cook (born February 28, 1946 in Bellshill , Scotland , † August 6, 2005 in Inverness , Scotland), called Robin Cook , was a British politician ( Labor ) and from 1997 to 2001 under Tony Blair Foreign Minister of Great Britain .

Life

Cook, the son of a school principal, moved into parliament for the first time in 1974 as a member of the lower house and made a special effort to support the socially disadvantaged. He made a name for himself in the 1980s and 1990s as an expert in economic, health and foreign policy. In 1997 there was a scandal over his relationship with his secretary, who later became his second wife.

In 1999 he supported the NATO mission in the Kosovo war with great commitment .

From 2001 he was leader of the Labor Party in the British lower house until he resigned on March 17, 2003 in protest against the course of the government of Tony Blair in the Iraq conflict . In front of the House of Commons, he said at the time: “I cannot support a war without international support and without domestic support.” His resignation speech , described by BBC journalist Andrew Marr as “one of the most effective and brilliant resignation speeches in modern British politics”, is that so far the only speech there that has received a standing ovation . From May 2001 to April 2003, Cook was chairman of the Party of European Socialists (PES) .

On August 6, 2005, Cook fell while on a mountain tour in Sutherland , Scotland as a result of a heart attack and died a little later in Inverness hospital . The first reports of his death spoke of a broken neck and severe facial injuries from the fall. The autopsy clarified the infarct as the cause of death. Cook left behind his second wife, and two children. Although he was an atheist, a memorial service for Cook was held on August 12, 2005 in St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh , attended by Finance Minister Gordon Brown and the then German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer . Prime Minister Tony Blair was absent as he was spending his annual leave with his family outside Europe at the time.

Political position

Cook was an avowed opponent of the view that the " war on terror " could be won by military means. After the London attacks on 7 July 2005 he stressed in a commentary for the daily newspaper The Guardian that a victory against terrorism also means "to defeat their poisonous belief can not live together that people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds." In memory of the Srebrenica massacre ten years earlier, "when the powerful nations of Europe failed to save 8,000 Muslims from extinction in the worst terrorist act in Europe of the last generation" , he already stated that Osama bin Laden was no more a true representative of the Islam could apply as General Mladić , who commanded the Serbian troops, was one of Christianity. About bin Laden, whom he described as “the product of a monumental misjudgment by the Western intelligence services” , and al-Qaida , he wrote: “During the 1980s he was armed by the CIA and financed by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian Lead Occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda, literally 'the database', was originally a computer file containing the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with the help of the CIA to defeat the Russians ” . He accused the US government of not considering that bin Laden's organization would turn against the West after the victory over the Soviet occupiers. It was a dangerous mistake that Cook saw as a dangerous mistake that Western responses to the terrorist threat were repeating this original mistake. As long as the fight against terrorism is viewed as a war that can be won by military means, it is doomed to failure.

Referring to the G8 summit taking place in Gleneagles at the time , Cook pleaded for Muslim countries to be more closely involved in international organizations and negotiations. Furthermore, a "war on poverty in the world" would contribute more to the security of the West than a "war on terror". Cook was also an opponent of Israeli settlement policy. During a visit to Israel in 1998 , a diplomatic scandal broke out when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down an arranged dinner with Cook. He was responding to criticism of Israel's settlement policy.

Others

In the political thriller Der Ghostwriter , the character of Richard Rycart Cook is modeled on.

swell

1. ↑ Cook's resignation speech (with video) on BBC News, March 18, 2003, accessed September 3, 2013.
2. ↑ Cook wins Commons ovation , BBC News, March 17, 2003, accessed September 3, 2013.
3. ^ Robert Finlayson (Robin) Cook, politician and parliamentarian, died on August 6th, aged 59 , The Economist, April 11, 2005, accessed September 3, 2013.
4. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4135256.stm BBC-NEWS from August 9, 2005 (English)
5. ↑ Scotland | Mourners' funeral tribute to Cook , BBC News. August 12, 2005. Retrieved June 24, 2009. 
6. ↑ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/holidaying-blair-will-not-attend-cook-553005
7. ↑ The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means (English) . In: The Guardian , July 8, 2005. Retrieved September 16, 2007. 
8. ^ Serge Schmemann: New York Times, Netanyahu Angrily Cancels Dinner With Visiting Briton Published: 18 March 1998 , New York Times. March 18, 1998. Retrieved June 24, 2009. 
9. ↑ Article in the Guardian about the feature film The Ghostwriter

Web links

• Remembering Robin Cook - Short biography at OpenDemocracy.net (Wayback) ( Memento from July 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
• Cook's resignation speech in Parliament on March 17, 2003
• Obituary in The Economist of August 11, 2005