Politics: A Touch of Nerves As Blair Tackles Yale and Us Tv

Tony Blair opened a new chapter of his public life last night when the man who honed his debating skills in the rowdy context of the Houses of Parliament applied them to the far more sedate setting of a lecture hall at Yale.

The former prime minister began a term-long series of seminars on faith and globalisation at the Ivy League university, in his first experience of teaching. With his new title as Howland Distinguished Fellow he has followed in the footsteps of his son Euan, who graduated from Yale with a master's degree in international relations earlier this year.

Blair told the college paper, the Yale Daily News, this week that he was "a bit nervous". "I was never a star student, and I'm coming along mixing with a whole lot of people who I'm sure are a whole lot more clever and smarter than I am."

A touch of nerves was evident too on Thursday when Blair broke other new ground - appearing on the satirical current affairs show presented by Jon Stewart. Blair came across as tense and a smidgeon tetchy in front of cameras in New York as he was hit by a stream of barbed comments from Stewart on his friendship with George Bush and the Iraq war.

Stewart, who enjoys a devoted television following as one of the sharpest political observers in the US, began by reflecting on the coincidence of the Yale posting with the economic meltdown on Wall Street. "You've picked the perfect time to come and work in America. Did you get your money up front?"

"Yes," Blair replied.

When the interview turned to the subject of the US president Blair was unable to disguise his discomfort. "Your relationship with George Bush seems - what's the word I'm looking for? - inexplicable," Stewart said, prompting a roar from the live audience.

Blair winced and said: "Here's something I find always goes down well, particularly back home: I like him."

"I would probably like him too if he wasn't in charge of me," Stewart fired back. Then he added: "It's like we're talking about the bad boy at school, and you're saying, 'You don't know him like I know him'."

Blair replied: "I'm not a fairweather friend. We've been through a lot together." Blair faced a similar barrage of cutting quips on his decision to back Bush over the invasion of Iraq. Asked whether he still felt it was a smart strategic move to topple Saddam, Blair conceded that he had not anticipated the maelstrom to come.

"If you look at the bloodshed there's been, and the difficulty, I would have been shocked but I would have asked why has this come about? There's a fundamental struggle going on I'm afraid, and there are two sides."

He insisted he had come to the view that the Iraq war was necessary "of my own accord and from my own conviction". But he added it was not a decision he took lightly. "None of this is easy," he said.

Since he departed Downing Street last year Blair has looked to the international stage in his search for a new role. He has taken on responsibilities as an envoy to the Middle East and as a participant in negotiations over climate change.

Blair, 55, has also modeled his activities on the post-presidential activities of his friend Bill Clinton, whose global foundation bears a close resemblance to the Tony Blair Faith Foundation that was set up in May.

Blair's lecture series will explore several of the themes that lie at the core of his foundation. The course is focused on the public roles of religious faiths in the context of globalisation.

Students will be encouraged to think about the resurgence of religious belief and how some faiths serve as oppressive or violent forces while others make positive contributions to society.

Hundreds of Yale students applied for the course. As part of their coursework they will be asked to develop ideas about how religions can be encouraged to take a constructive part in pluralistic societies.

Daily Show excerpts

On the Yale appointment

Jon Stewart: May I ask you this sir, did you get your money up front?

Tony Blair: Er, yes.

Stewart: American dollars or Euros?

Blair: I'm sort of working on that one. British pounds will do just fine.

On George Bush

Stewart: Did he [Bush] understand the time difference or did he call you up and it would be like, four in the morning and he'd be like, "Tony, you gotta turn on Channel 4 there's a snake eating an egg!" How did it go?

Blair: It was okay, I got used to that.

On Britain

Stewart: Listen I'm a big fan. I love the Beatles and all that sort of thing. I know you have question time where you go in front of parliament and they all yell at each other.

Blair: Well it's a little more sophisticated than that, we like to think!

Stewart: Not the episodes I've seen!

On the Iraq war

Blair: Al-Qaida ... are precisely those forces of terrorism [in Iraq] based on a perversion of Islam and Iranian-backed militia, and they're the people fighting in Afghanistan, and whether it's in the Yemen or Algeria or Palestine or Pakistan, there's a struggle going on.

Stewart: ... what was that list?

Blair: No, I'm not saying you have to take military action on all of them!

Stewart: So it's one country at a time?

Blair: No, no I don't say that ...