British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a television press conference at 10 Downing Street on February 22, 2021 in London, England.
Leon Neil | Getty Images
Has British Prime Minister Boris Jones finally discovered the global role of his country since he lost his empire?
Has the silly, ambitious, moppy-haired leader of the United Kingdom – a biographer, admirer and occasional emulator of Winston Churchill – provided a blueprint for his own shot at greatness?
Or Johnson’s critics are right that this week’s introduction of “Global Britain a Competitive Era” – An impressive, 114-page guide to the future from Her Majesty’s Government – Is it a brave but inadequate cover for the brave historical Brexit mistake that will forever stain her legacy?
One thing is for sure. The document came as a welcome reminder of British strategic seriousness, when there was more controversy about the national collapse after Oprah Winfrey’s sit-in with rogue Royals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (including a visit to their California farm and his rescue chicken).
Johnson’s paper also comes as a delayed attempt to answer Dean Acheson’s speech at Stinging West Point in 1962, nearly a decade ago, in which he argued: “Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found its role.”
At the time, the legendary U.S. diplomat was praising the “huge importance” of the UK’s application to be part of the European Common Market, the next six countries to join in 1973, just eleven years later.
His remarks insulted then-British Prime Minister Harold Mum Camillan and electrified the Fleet Street media.
“Trying to play the role of a separate power,” Acheson said. “It is a role other than Europe, a role based on a ‘special relationship’ with the United States, which is the role of the head of the Commonwealth. – This is the role to play. “
One wonders what Asheson will say today, more than a year after the United Kingdom left the European Union, 47 years after it joined, and its current Prime Minister Boris Jones has yet to rediscover that elusive role.
It is a reasonable condition that it be promoted by the ambition, clarity and detail of the unified review. At the same time, however, it will question how little attention it pays to the central role of the European dimension to the role of Great Britain.
Probably a factor as to why they’re doing so poorly.
Nonetheless, this paper will take the United Kingdom in many right directions that could ensure its outsourced global role as a medium-sized European country with the world’s leading security and intelligence agencies.
It also shows a keen understanding of the most pressing global challenges, which is a must read for Biden administration officials. It is inspiring as a key point for allied democracies.
“History has shown that democratic societies are the strongest supporters of an open and resilient international order,” Jones wrote in the paper Forward, “in which global organizations prove their ability to protect human rights, manage tensions between great powers, destabilize conflicts.” Share instability and climate change, and prosperity through trade and investment. ”
Most notable among Johnson’s new ambitions for Great Britain, as he said in his remarks for the paper, is “to secure our position as a science and tech superpower by 2030.”
By expanding research and development costs, promoting a global network of innovation partnerships and improving national expertise – the eight-page UK in detail, including the Global Talent Visa, to attract the world’s best and brightest.
“In the years to come, countries that have established leading roles in critical and emerging technologies will be at the forefront of global leadership,” the paper says, adding that quantum computing, artificial intelligence and cyber domains will be identified as areas of focus.
The UK would prefer relations with the United States (“not more valuable to the British people”) without the hassle of the word “special relationship”, while at the same time “tilting” the international attention to the Indo-Pacific. .
Johnson has invited leaders from Australia, South Korea and India to attend Its G-Sum Summit in June, and its visit to India in April to further efforts to build ties with the world’s largest democracy, which lasted until 1947 under British rule.
The bill, which is being touted as the UK’s most significant strategic reconsideration since the Cold War, has a lot on its pages, which will be followed this week by its military dimension. The bumper sticker is that the UK will “be a problem-solving and burden-sharing nation with a global perspective.”
Many will argue That this paper will not undo the strategic error of Brexit. They point to the inevitable, long-term hit of the British economy, with both London as a financial hub and the UK as a domestic production base for European markets.
They question whether the UK, which accounts for 0.87% of the world’s population and the world’s sixth-largest economy, will ever have the influence to compete with what it enjoys with a total of 5.8 per cent of EU leaders. % Of the global population and 17.8% of the world economy.
That said, if Johnson’s intent was to justify his Brexit decision, the paper comes at a good time. Criticism of the EU’s leadership and bureaucracy in managing its Covid-19 and vaccine distribution is growing, and the United Kingdom is performing well by comparison.
What is important about the document is the practical, non-conceptual and intelligent framework for the future. None of the Boris Johnson blasters in the paper designed as a “guide to action”.
John Beav, a 40-year-old historian, can see the fingerprints of the man chosen by Johnson to draw the review. At the same time Jones recruited them for their broader perspective, avoiding the more traditional choice of senior government official or politician.
Most notably, the Integrated Review has shifted “Global Britain” from a very malicious formula to an extraordinary plan. If the United Kingdom could take action against it, the previous empire would have had the same global role as its resources, capabilities, ambitions – and historic moment.
Frederick Kempe is the best-selling author, award-winning journalist and president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of the most influential think tanks on global affairs in the United States. He worked for the Wall Street Journal as a foreign correspondent, assistant managing editor and longest-serving editor of the European edition of the paper for more than 25 years. His most recent book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth” – was the New York Times best-seller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredCampe and subscribe here at Inflation Point, his every Saturday look at last week’s top stories and trends.
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