Goldstein Interviewed on Priti Patel’s PM Prospects
Erik Goldstein, Professor of International Relations and History at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was interviewed for a recent article examining British Home Secretary Priti Patel’s prospects of becoming Prime Minister.
Goldstein was interviewed for a November 14, 2019 article by IBTimes entitled “Who is Priti Patel? Could Priti Patel become Britain’s first Asian PM?”
From the text of the article:
Erik Goldstein, professor of international relations at Boston University, said Patel’s appointment to Johnson’s cabinet no doubt enhanced its ethnic and gender diversity. “Most importantly she was seen as having hard conservative views on matters relating to policing and immigration,” Goldstein said. As such, while Patel may be reviled by many on the left, she has “strong support among the right, and now dominant, wing of the Conservative Party because of her consistent hardline views on immigration and law-and-order issues.”
Goldstein said Patel’s questionable parleys with Israeli officials under May were forgotten once Johnson took over.
Goldstein said a Gujrati Conservative is not unusual in Britain where large numbers of South Asians have lived for at least 60 years. “The British Asian community … has become integrated into British society, become politically more pluralistic,” he explained. “The economically successful Hindu and other South Asian communities have naturally gravitated to the Conservatives, the traditional party of business.”
Might Patel become Britain’s first ethnic minority prime minister since Benjamin Disraeli in the mid-19th century? Goldstein said he does not think so — not due to ethnicity, but rather because she does not have a broad enough base of support across the party.
Erik Goldstein is the author of numerous works on the peace settlement, including two books, Winning the Peace: British Diplomatic Strategy, Peace Planning, and the Paris Peace Conference, 1916-1920 and The First World Wars Peace Settlements: International Relations, 1918-25.His research interests include diplomacy, formulation of national diplomatic strategies, the origins and resolution of armed conflict, and negotiation. He has published in numerous journals, including Review of International Relations, Middle Eastern Studies, East European Quarterly, Historical Research, Historical Journal, Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, and the Hague Journal of Diplomacy.