The trial balloon was floated by a UK cabinet minister who spoke in the US and Brown is expected to promote this idea during his visit to Washington in the near future.
In what will be seen as an assertion of the importance of multilateralism in Mr Brown's foreign policy, Mr Alexander said: "In the 20th century a country's might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st century strength should be measured by what we can build together. And so we must form new alliances, based on common values, ones not just to protect us from the world, but ones which reach out to the world." He described this as "a new alliance of opportunity".Obviously the jury is still out with Brown but it's healthy to have new and different viewpoints in this relationship. We've already seen what good a lapdog is so this is a very welcome new development. Competing ideas can only help the process which today is mired in a bubble that serves no benefit to finding a way out of some previously very bad policies. Blair was a disastrous failure with offering and standing firm on opposing points of view. He talked as though he might, but the end result was always the same. Let's see what the new PM can do to make a break with the failures of the past.
He added: "We need to demonstrate by our deeds, words and our actions that we are internationalist, not isolationist, multilateralist, not unilateralist, active and not passive, and driven by core values, consistently applied, not special interests."
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