NPR’s A Martinez speaks with Shannon Felton Spence, a former manager of high-profile diplomatic and political engagements for the British government, about King Charles’ visit to Washington.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For more on the king’s visit to Washington, let’s turn to a former British Consulate official. Shannon Felton Spence is now with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. So, Shannon, could King Charles help mend the British prime minister’s relationship with President Trump?
SHANNON FELTON SPENCE: I think that the purpose of this state visit is really centered around celebrating America 250, but certainly, the king is a charm offensive. He is the No. 1 soft-power tool that the U.K has, and, as your reporting just mentioned, he gets along well with the president. They have a lot in common. They have met several times before. And, you know, I think that the president is a great host. I think at the end of this week, everybody is going to walk away feeling warm and fuzzy about each other.
MARTÍNEZ: The thing is, though, I’m sure that King Charles will probably do anything he can to not sound or appear like he’s taking sides between Trump and Keir Starmer. But for President Trump, it matters whether you take his side or not.
FELTON SPENCE: Yeah. So actually, it’s not that he will just go out of his way to not do it. It’s actually not his job to get into the political fray. So one of the advantages of having this constitutional monarchy is that you have this monarch that flies above the political fray. This is not the first time in history that presidents and prime ministers have disagreed, or even really heatedly disagreed. It’s just that this president does everything in public, and so we are read into all of the disagreements that are between these two nations. But the king is going to not address this with the president. And his job is to remind the American public, remind Congress and remind the president about this shared history, these shared values and this deep, deep partnership that the U.S. and the U.K. have had for – you know, really for 80 years, but in some ways for 200 years.
MARTÍNEZ: So outside of a charm offensive, what sort of diplomatic tools does King Charles have at his disposal?
FELTON SPENCE: Well, listen. It’s long reported that the president really admires the king. So if you think about it, the king is truly President Trump’s equal in terms of being heads of state. So the prime minister is the head of government. He’s not the head of state. So this is a real win for Donald Trump, to be able to host the king, who he sees as his true equal, who is his true equal in these matters – these diplomatic matters – and to get the respect shown to him publicly from someone such as the king. That’s what he liked about visiting the queen as well.
You know, it’s a long, storied history with Americans being fascinated with the British royal family and the British aristocracy. This is the same reason why Vanderbilts were marrying off their young daughters to, you know, dukes across the ocean. There’s something about it that has mystique, that has sparkle that Americans just don’t have. We don’t have something like that in American society, and so it fascinates us. And there are still people, including the president, who really, really strive to be shown respect by the royal family. So that’s his whole job, is to just show the president respect and to remind us these two countries are smarter, stronger and safer together and that we have built that over a very long history of shared values, like democratic values and the rule of law, and this heritage that we have created since America’s founding.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, we just heard about the visit from King Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1991. Here’s a little of her speech to Congress, as heard on C-SPAN.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELIZABETH II: Some people believe that power grows from the barrel of a gun. So it can. But history shows that it never grows well, nor for very long. Force, in the end, is sterile.
MARTÍNEZ: Shannon, depending on someone’s perspective, someone could take that as a very political kind of statement. Do you expect the king to make any kind of point even close to similar to that to Congress today?
FELTON SPENCE: Listen, I think that this is actually more rooted in international relations theory, right? So Joe Nye, who was actually a member of the Belfer Center, talked about soft power and how soft power is the power of influence and attraction, and it’s different than hard power. And they go hand in hand, but, you know, it’s better to win hearts and minds. And the queen was the absolute best at catching more bees with honey, and that was the message that she was delivering in the early 1990s. Yes, the speech is going to have a lot of read-between-the-lines, but it’s not going to be political in any sense. I do expect him to raise the importance of NATO and the importance of Ukraine, but I don’t think that it is going to, you know, take a swipe at the president in any way.
MARTÍNEZ: Shannon Felton Spence is a former British Consulate official who’s now director of global communications and strategy at Harvard Kennedy School. Shannon, thanks.
FELTON SPENCE: Thank you.
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