Concluding Thoughts: British Foreign Policy and the Special Relationship in the Cameron Era and Beyond

Abstract

The book's conclusion argues that David Cameron's government must re-evaluate Britain's geopolitical relationship with American (and European) governments. Outlining the implications for British foreign policy of recent geopolitical changes – the Presidency of Barack Obama, the strengthening foreign policy role of the EU, changes to the coherency of the Commonwealth and Britain's lost geopolitical capital in the wider world after the Iraq War - the chapter draws together the central theme of the book: to argue that the role British foreign policy has been attempting to re-play in the special relationship since 1945 has become progressively more difficult to sustain and less successful in terms of its outcomes.