Foreign and defence policies

Abstract

Within the memory span of many middle-aged adults, Britain has moved from being a major world power to being a middle-sized regional power. What factors led to this decline? Britain’s changed circumstances have forced policy makers into taking sometimes painful decisions. The EU has grown in importance in relation to British foreign policy, and at times this has created tensions in Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the USA. As a consequence, Britain is attempting to balance its links with both the USA and the EU. While British foreign and defence policies have traditionally reflected the interest of a small political elite rather than a wider political public, the media, non-governmental organisations and multinational companies are becoming increasingly important actors in shaping external policy. The end of the cold war has not resulted in a ‘new world order’ as some politicians predicted, but in a new disorder which has involved Britain and its allies. Terrorism has emerged as a new threat after 11 September 2001, and the war on terrorism may yet replace inter-state conflict as the main means of defence policy in the 21st century: already British foreign and defence policy objectives have to prioritise homeland defence in its various forms.