Seize The Day!(Prime Minister Tony Blair, foreign relations)(Brief Article)

Tony Blair is at peace with war. He's the architect who helped George W. Bush build a broad coalition in the war on terrorism. He's the globe-trotting geopolitician who's covering about one country every two days, schmoozing presidents and prime ministers, sultans and sheiks, chancellors and emirs. Lately he's become propagandist in chief to the Arab and Islamic worlds, writing columns and explaining the U.S.- British bombing of Afghanistan to angry Muslims from London to Masqat. If life is more jet-lagged than it used to be, it's also more dangerous. Last week a radical Islamic group in Britain pronounced him a "legitimate target." Yet amid all this, the British prime minister seems downright serene. When a TV interviewer in Oman asked if he was worried about being a target, he replied: "No, I'm afraid it comes with the job."

That job, in fact, changed on Sept. 11. Blair knew America would "put its entire strength into dealing with the perpetrators," he said in an interview last week. And he knew Britain would join the battle: "I don't really see how you can see it any differently." Perhaps more quickly than any other statesman besides Bush himself, Blair saw his world changing--and acted. He quickly became de facto secretary of State of the coalition. He speaks to Bush about twice a week. But he is no lapdog. Downing Street coordinates its movements and messages with the White House but is not controlled by it. In the process, says Philippe Moreau Defarges of the French Institute for International Relations, "Blair has essentially imposed himself as the leader of Europe since the attacks."

With evangelistic fervor, Blair has seized the day not just in Europe. Speaking as a European and backed by American clout, he has been instrumental in keeping the coalition together. Right before the bombing began, he shifted the focus of his shuttle diplomacy. Two weeks ago he dropped in on Pakistan and India, hoping to soothe Afghanistan's nervous neighbors. Last week he hopscotched across the Middle East as opposition to the bombing rose up in the street and rattled the palaces of Arab leaders.

The news was not good. True, in Cairo, President Hosni Mubarak said Egypt stood "united and tough" against terrorism. And yes, a senior British official assured reporters that when Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman met with Blair, he agreed with the prime minister that "the 'Al Qaeda doctrine' is a perversion of all the true teachings of the Islamic faith." But Blair's people were papering over the underlying message: the coalition was faring badly in the souks and universities of the Arab world and indeed in all countries with large Muslim populations. "The leaders are with us," said the British official, but they all have a "genuine problem" with popular sentiment and unrest. That became obvious when Blair scrubbed a trip to Saudi Arabia last week. His aides said the visit was simply "logistically impossible." But the Arab press reported that the Saudi royal family, worried about the impact of the bombing, begged off.

Blair's team saw much of this coming and adjusted accordingly. He can do so nimbly, for he runs his patch of the war with an inner circle of half a dozen people. ...