Britain’s global ambitions post Brexit in the light of geopolitics

Abstract

On 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union after almost half a century of membership “to take back control of its borders”, free to fulfil its world ambitions. This was the view held by Theresa May’s former Foreign Secretary, then British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. In June 2021, he formally launched his “global Britain” strategy in the wake of the G7 summit that he hosted in Cornwall. He never clearly explained what “Global Britain” really meant. The closer he came to define it was in March 2021 when his government published its “Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy” entitled “Global Britain in a Competitive Age”, setting Britain’s foreign policy agenda for the years to come. The latter presented the Indo-Pacific as one of the key priorities of the UK, a “global leader” in terms of defence, intelligence, cyber-security, and diplomacy, as a response to a more and more assertive China. Russia for its part was identified as a major threat to Britain’s security. The Commonwealth, which played a pivotal role until the 1970s, was hardly mentioned at all. One might wonder whether the UK post-Brexit has the necessary resources and clear strategy to reclaim its status as a world-leading nation in an international context characterized by much instability. Britain’s global ambitions post Brexit will therefore be examined in the light of geopolitics which considers not only geographic factors, but also countries’ national interests to provide a better understanding of their behaviour and political objectives on the world stage.