Beyond Britannia: Reshaping UK Foreign Policy

by Simon McDonald

An argument for a new approach to foreign policy in the United Kingdom.



What should the future of British foreign policy look like? For too long, successive governments have shied away from acknowledging uncomfortable truths about the decline of Britain’s military capabilities. As we approach the middle years of the twenty-first century, a new set of urgent and daunting challenges lie ahead, including climate change, technological development, the rise of AI, and a growing threat from China. The need for us to reconcile ourselves with our position in the world has never been more acute. In Beyond Reshaping UK Foreign Policy , Simon McDonald persuasively argues that the United Kingdom’s significant soft-power strengths can be harnessed to expand its international influence. Such a shift will only be possible, he says, if we first acknowledge the challenges of Brexit and the need to reduce our unrealistic hard-power ambitions. Excellence in areas that other countries care about will keep the United Kingdom internationally relevant in the second half of the century in a way that nostalgia for a lost pre-eminence will not.

 

280 pages, Hardcover

Published April 3, 2024

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Behind the times.

McDonald argues that the future of GB foreign policy lies in its soft power because GB's hard power capabilities don't cut the mustard. This denies policy choice, taking for granted that there was no alternative to running down these capabilities after 1990 and that it's impossible to regenerate these capabilities now they are lost.

This is accompanied by some argumentational sleight of hand: "we can't do it, and that's good because hard power is on the way out anyway". This sour grapes attitude has aged poorly amid spiralling escalation in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Current GB policy to increase defence spending to 3.5% would appear to suggest it thinks this former diplomatic doyen got it wrong.

The author's obsession with Boris Johnson is really odd.

[David Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A succinct summation of where the author - a former head of the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office - believes British foreign policy should be in the post-Brexit and 80-years post-British Empire world. And where is that? at the level of soft, persuasive power, as part of regional and world groupings such as the G7. Obviously a remainer in terms of his views on Brexit, nonetheless he helped implement Britain's withdrawal from the EU under the Boris Johnson government as head of the FCO when Brexit happened, a demonstration of what he lists as one of Britain's key virtues - a politically neutral and highly professional civil service. In all, his vision of a Britain that is proud but very aware it is no longer a great power is persuasive. Some interesting takeaways from the book: the City of London has continued to thrive as a major business hub despite predictions during and immediately after Brexit that it would lose out in a major way; and Tony Blair really was a poodle to the US if a footnote which references an instruction from Blair's chief of staff for a new UK ambassador to the US to "get up the arse of the White House and stay there" is true.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and insightful. I was reminded of Danny Dorling's Rule Britannia. The sooner the UK population and politicians, in general, realise that the UK's position in the world is changed since the end of Empire, the better.