ABSTRACT
British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s 2001 Labour Party Conference speech, less than a month after the terrorist attacks of 11 September, asserted a communitybased account of ethics apparently opposed to war. The events of 11 September were leading governments and individuals ‘to reflect, consider and change’, such that ‘amidst all the talk of war and action, there is another dimension appearing. There is a coming together. The power of community is asserting itself ’ (Blair 2001c). This was Blair at his ‘messianic’ best (Riddell 2004, 165). In the most widely quoted section of his speech, Blair called for the international community to act in favour of the ‘starving, the wretched, the dispossessed, the ignorant, those living in want and squalor’ from Africa to Afghanistan:
This is a moment to seize. The kaleidoscope has been shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us re-order this world around us. Today, humankind has the science and technology to destroy itself or to provide prosperity to all. Yet science can’t make that choice for us. Only the moral power of a world acting as a community can.
