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Tony Blair came to power in 1997 with a worldview initially forged via the Kosovo crisis of 1998-1999 and articulated in his Chicago speech of April 1999, with its emphasis on humanitarian intervention and the management of globalization. Hisrole in transforming Britain’s armed forces to make them globally deployable inthe cause of crisis management, and his role in kick-starting, along with PresidentJacques Chirac, the process of European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) gavehim an early reputation as an architect of a new values-based approach to international relations. However, Blair’s seemingly unconditional support forPresident George W. Bush over the Iraq War, massively disavowed by his fellow citizens, led to his early withdrawal (June 2007) from national politics.Jolyon Howorth, Jolyon Howorth, professeur à l’Université de Yale, est chercheur associé à l’Ifri.