“Global Britain”: the first time the British brought up this concept was in 2016, just after the Brexit referendum. At the time, it was a question of reassuring public opinion and foreign partners: the future divorce from the European Union (EU) did not mean that the United Kingdom was going to renounce its international commitments.
On the contrary : “The referendum was not a vote to cut us off from the rest of the world but to keep our heads high, to believe in ourselves, to forge ourselves an ambitious and optimistic new role in the world”, then Prime Minister Theresa May said in a speech to the Conservative Party convention on October 2, 2016.
Boris Johnson was then his foreign minister, and he applauded heartily, like the other barons of the Tories. Four and a half years later, Brexit finally took place (the 1er January), Mr. Johnson took the helm in Downing Street and it is he, who with a thick document (the “integrated review of security, defense, development and foreign policy”) published Tuesday March 16, tries to give substance to a slogan so far very nebulous.
It is about defining the place of the United Kingdom in the world in 2030, “Our most important geopolitical exercise since the cold war”, Mr Johnson clarified from the House of Commons. A world in which “The status quo is no longer sufficient”, “The international order being more fragmented, with more intense competition between countries on values and interests” explains the “review”. The ambition is undeniable, the tone rather measured and balanced, “Less Johnsonian than one might have feared”, underlines Peter Ricketts, former UK Ambassador to France and former NATO Representative.
A nuclear power that matters
First very significant announcement: the United Kingdom allows itself to increase its stock of nuclear warheads from 180 to 260, a first after thirty years of reducing its capacities. “It is the ultimate guarantee, the insurance policy against the worst threats from hostile states”, justified Dominic Raab, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, even if the “review” specifies that the country remains “Committed in the long term to a world without nuclear weapons”. Denounced by the Labor Party, the decision is a way for London to reaffirm that it is a nuclear power that matters.
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