What does it mean for a nation to exert “influence”? Partly it’s about attitude: the confidence and determination to push hard and long for national objectives. But it’s also about organisation: having the institutions, skills and discipline to turn foreign policy goals into real changes. Taxpayers might think the UK has that in hand, in the form of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) which commands the space between Downing Street and the Treasury. But those grand offices hide a momentous decline over the past four decades.
When I joined the FCO in 1979, the European Economic Community was an odd, distant formation where you dusted off A-level French for inconsequential meetings with bemused French and German embassy colleagues and disconcertingly confident European Commission zealots. Things changed. The legal power exerted by Brussels grew and grew. The EEC transformed into a European Community, then a European Union.
(...)
But Brexit offers an extraordinary opportunity to regain our international confidence. The UK is far richer than Russia, our relationships around the world are more sophisticated, we are usually better analysts and we are equal in the UN. Still, between us, who looks and acts like a world power? Who gives the impression of believing power exists, and can be deployed for a national interest? Of having any national interest at all?
Part of the reason for our Brexit vote was a rejection of genteel declinism. Against Remain’s pessimism, the Leave campaign managed to capture the case for optimism and taking risks. So we can take advantage of Brexit only if we make radical changes, above all by uniting the spending of Dfid and the FCO in one Foreign Ministry. That would restore a strong, single foreign policy, uniting political and “development” objectives – and the officials pursuing them. Full story...
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When I joined the FCO in 1979, the European Economic Community was an odd, distant formation where you dusted off A-level French for inconsequential meetings with bemused French and German embassy colleagues and disconcertingly confident European Commission zealots. Things changed. The legal power exerted by Brussels grew and grew. The EEC transformed into a European Community, then a European Union.
(...)
But Brexit offers an extraordinary opportunity to regain our international confidence. The UK is far richer than Russia, our relationships around the world are more sophisticated, we are usually better analysts and we are equal in the UN. Still, between us, who looks and acts like a world power? Who gives the impression of believing power exists, and can be deployed for a national interest? Of having any national interest at all?
Part of the reason for our Brexit vote was a rejection of genteel declinism. Against Remain’s pessimism, the Leave campaign managed to capture the case for optimism and taking risks. So we can take advantage of Brexit only if we make radical changes, above all by uniting the spending of Dfid and the FCO in one Foreign Ministry. That would restore a strong, single foreign policy, uniting political and “development” objectives – and the officials pursuing them. Full story...
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