It was a busy week for David Miliband, Great Britain’s youthful new foreign secretary. He addressed the Labour Party conference, acknowledging the successes and “scars” from 10 years of Labour government and saying that Britain must strengthen its links with the United States and the international community. Europe, he added, should look “to the problems beyond its borders that define insecurity within our borders.” Two days later he addressed the UN General Assembly, warning that rising inequality is both “morally offensive” and “dangerous” to global stability and prosperity. In a discussion with Newsweek editors, he elaborated on threats the world must come to terms with. Excerpts

• How would you rate Europe’s performance in coming to grips with the internal security threat from terrorism? It seems there is a wide variation.

It is true that it’s very patchy. These German and Danish arrests (of alleged Al Qaeda cells) are interesting because on the security problem they’ve really done very well. The French have always had a very different approach to the integration of Muslim communities. You go through the suburbs of Paris and you really worry about the ghettoisation and the problems it is posing. However, you haven’t got French suicide bombers, and we’ve got British suicide bombers. So there’s a dose of humility that goes along with it. In Europe I’m now saying to people, “Look, whatever you’ve thought about Iraq in 2002 and 2003, you’ve got to get into a different way (of thinking) now.” The French foreign minister has been to Baghdad, the Swedish foreign minister has been to Baghdad. I just said “Look, go to Baghdad.” It’s a political statement and gives political credibility to the process.

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