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In an extraordinary admission, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has blamed 200 years of imperialism, including his country's complacency over "what happened in Kashmir", for the worst crises of the 21st century.
"India, Pakistan -- we made some quite serious mistakes," Straw told the New Statesman magazine in an interview.
He lamented the complacency of publishing the "boundaries two days after [Indian] independence. Bad story for us, the consequences are still there".
Straw said the crises in Kashmir, Afghanistan and West Asia were the result of British involvement.
"The odd lines for Iraq's borders were drawn by Brits. The Balfour Declaration and the contradictory assurances that were being given to Palestinians in private at the same time as they were being given to the Israelis -- again, an interesting history for us but not an entirely honourable one," the foreign secretary said.
He also rejected the doctrine of "liberal imperialism" recently offered by Prime Minister Tony Blair's former foreign policy advisor, by which the developed West would be emboldened to intervene in the disputes of the developing world.
"I'm not a liberal imperialist... there's a lot wrong with imperialism. A lot of the problems we are having to deal with now... are a consequence of our colonial past," he said.
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