Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has confirmed that the United Kingdom will, before the end of this month, send extra military advisers to Iraq to help train army troops. This development, which coincides with the extension of British air operations against Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) until March 2017, comes at a moment when the UK is reviewing its place in the world.
This reassessment process, which includes the 2015 National Security Strategy (NSS) exercise and the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) are as urgent as they are necessary, especially given the scant attention paid to international issues in this year’s general election campaign. For the last half decade has seen Britain lose its global influence at the fastest pace for years, despite the fact that it retains the fifth largest defence budget, the second largest aid budget and the fourth largest diplomatic network internationally.
And this has happened because the UK Government has moved away from the world, rather than confidently embracing it. It is a flawed approach that has weakened Britain and diminished its international standing.
One of the biggest examples of failed foreign policy leadership and misjudgement is UK policy towards the European Union (EU) where Britain is facing into a referendum, potentially as soon as Summer 2016, in which the government has few clear, substantive goals for the proposed renegotiation it seeks with its European partners, nor a coherent or comprehensive strategy for achieving those ambitions. Given the volatility of public opinion, the plebiscite could yet be won by those advocating EU exit, which would not only harm Britain, but also the rest of Europe by disrupting the currently-28 member state’s balance of power, inner workings, and policy orientations.
Despite what many British Eurosceptics assert, the UK’s influence and prosperity are enhanced by EU membership. The British population now accounts for less than 1 per cent of global population and its gross domestic product (GDP) around 3 per cent of world GDP. As former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband rightly said: “Our role in Europe magnifies the power of our ideas and strengthens our international clout in Washington, Beijing and Moscow”.
For example, in trade negotiations, such as those with the United States now over the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the UK’s bargaining position is significantly improved by being part of the EU — the world’s largest trading bloc — which accounts for some 20 per cent of global GDP and approximately 500 million people. Thus, imperfect and in need of reform as Brussels is, the British economy would suffer if the country leaves.
The influence that EU membership confers on the UK, for instance, helps drive foreign direct investment (FDI). Japanese-headquartered firms have been particularly vocal in threatening to reconsider their FDI if the UK opts to leave the EU because many of these companies see their British operations as an effective way to access the whole of the European market.
In the debate about Britain’s place in the world, much attention is often given here to the slashing of UK defence spending in the last five years, however, what is less well understood are the sweeping cutbacks to British soft power. These range from the greater-than-25 per cent reductions in the Foreign Office budget in the last half decade to extensive cuts to the BBC World Service whose very future may be threatened by the UK Government’s expected changes to the BBC in coming years.
Britain’s still formidable soft power is crucial to its international influence, and could play a significantly greater role in UK foreign policy. A good example is tackling Daesh, where military action alone can only potentially degrade, not defeat, this foe.
In February, the House of Commons Defence Committee heavily criticised “UK ministers and officials [who] have failed to set out a clear military strategy for Iraq, or a clear definition of the UK’s role in the operations”. The report suggested Britain was lurching from “over-intervention to complete isolation” and that “we see no evidence of an energised policy debate, reviewing or arguing options for deeper engagement”.
A smarter approach to tackling this terrorist challenge would be to better combine hard and soft power through a more comprehensive, long-term economic, social and political strategy to defeating terrorism at its roots. This should include enhanced public and cultural diplomacy, foreign aid and development assistance, alongside greater stress on an international political strategy, with Middle Eastern countries playing a central role, in tackling the rise of extremism.
In a previous generation, former Conservative foreign secretary Douglas Hurd asserted that Britain had been able to “punch above its weight” in the post-war era, despite it no longer being a great power. That statement may still be true today, but is under increasing scrutiny as the UK risks fading into what General Sir Richard Shirreff, who was until March Britain’s top commander in Nato, has called “foreign policy irrelevance”.
In recent months, graphic examples of this isolation have included the UK’s absence as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande negotiated a peace settlement with Russia over Ukraine. According to Shirreff, Britain’s failure to act more prominently here helped turned it into a “bit player” with “nobody taking any notice of [Prime Minister David Cameron]”.
Thus, at a time when the UK faces a massive range of challenges from Russia’s new stridency, a migration crisis in Europe and a continued terrorist threat, Britain desperately needs a more outward-looking and self confident international posture. And this is where the National Security Strategy (NSS) and Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) can play a role by helping to reorient UK policy.
Ultimately, this is not just a burning issue for Britain, but also the rest of the word as a UK that no longer punches so strongly on the international stage is also less able to bolster international security and prosperity at a time when both remain fragile. The recent 70th anniversaries of the end of the Second World War in Europe and Asia are a fitting time to remember Britain’s proud traditions as a long-standing promoter of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Continuing this long into the 21st century would be best secured by a different approach to UK foreign policy which the NSS and SDSR should seek to enable.
Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS (the Centre for International Affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy) at the London School of Economics, and a former UK Government special adviser.
