Boris Johnson has an extraordinary plan for Britain’s global role

Has British Prime Minister Boris Johnson finally found his country the global role it has eluded since losing its empire?

Did the UK’s irreverent, ambitious, flabby leader – the biographer, admirer and sometimes emulator of Winston Churchill – provide the blueprint for his own shot at greatness?

Or are Johnson’s critics right that this week’s release of “Global Britain in a Competitive Age” – the impressive 114-page guide to the future of Her Majesty’s government – is brave but insufficient cover for the historic Brexit blunder that will tarnish his legacy forever?

One thing is certain. This document came as a welcome reminder of British strategic seriousness after further wails over national decline following Oprah Winfrey’s sit-down with rogue royals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (including a visit to their California ranch and his rescue hens).

Johnson’s paper also comes as a belated attempt to answer Dean Acheson’s stabbing West Point address from nearly six decades ago in 1962, in which he stated, “Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.”

At the time, the legendary American diplomat praised the ‘immense importance’ of the UK’s application to be part of the then European Common Market of six countries, which it would not join until eleven years later, in 1973.

His words demeaned then British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and brought the media on Fleet Street under fire.

“The attempt to play a separate power role,” said Acheson, “that is, a role separate from Europe, a role based on a ‘special relationship’ with the United States, a role based on being head of the United States. a ‘commonwealth’ that has no political structure, or unity, or strength – this role is about played out. “

You may wonder what Acheson would say today, more than a year after the United Kingdom left the European Union, 47 years after it joined, and with its current Prime Minister Boris Johnson now once again in search of that elusive role.

It is a good bet he would be encouraged by the ambition, clarity and detail of the Integrated Review. Although at the same time he would wonder how little attention it pays to what he considered the central role of the European dimension in Britain’s role.

Perhaps the pain of divorce remains too close for sound reflection.

Yet this document is leading the UK in many of the right directions that could ensure its outsized global role as a mid-sized European country with world-leading security and intelligence services.

It also demonstrates an understanding of the most pressing global challenges, making it a must-read for officials of the Biden administration. It is inspiring as a gathering point for democratic fellow countries.

“History has shown that democratic societies are the strongest proponents of an open and resilient international order,” wrote Johnson in the paper’s forward, “in which global institutions demonstrate their ability to protect human rights, manage tensions between superpowers, conflict. and instability. and climate change, and sharing prosperity through trade and investment. ”

Most notable of Johnson’s new ambitions for Britain, as he put it in his foreword to the newspaper, is “to secure our status as a science and technology superpower by 2030”.

Eight pages describe how the UK plans to do just that by expanding research and development spending, strengthening its global network of innovation partnerships and improving national skills – including a Global Talent Visa to attract the best and brightest in the world.

“In the coming years, countries leading the way in critical and emerging technologies will be at the forefront of global leadership,” says the paper, identifying quantum computing, artificial intelligence and cyber domains as areas of focus.

Without dusting off the overused term ‘special relationship’, the UK would give top priority to ties with the United States (‘no longer valuable to the British people’), while at the same time ’tilting’ its international focus towards Indo-Pacific. .

Johnson has invited the leaders of Australia, South Korea and India to attend his G7 summit in June, and he will visit India in April to step up his efforts to deepen relations with the world’s greatest democracy, which was under the British Raj until 1947.

There’s a lot more to the pages of what’s being billed as the UK’s most important strategic rethink since the Cold War, which will be followed this week by its military dimension. The bumper sticker is that the UK will be “a problem-solving and burden-sharing nation with a global perspective”.

Many will argue that this document cannot undo the strategic mistake of Brexit They point to the inevitable, long-lasting blow to the British economy, both for London as a financial center and for the UK as a domestic production base for European markets.

They wonder if the UK, with a population of 0.87% of the global total and an economy ranked sixth in the world, will ever affect what it enjoyed as one of the leaders of a European Union with a total of 5.8% of the world population and 17.8% of the world economy.

That said, if Johnson’s goal was to justify his Brexit decision, the paper comes at a good time. Criticism of the EU’s leadership and bureaucracy in dealing with Covid-19 and vaccine distribution is mounting, and the UK is doing well by comparison.

The most important thing about the document is the pragmatic, non-ideological and intelligent framework for the future. There is none of Boris Johnson’s roar in a paper designed as “a guide to action.”

One can see the fingerprints of the man chosen by Johnson to direct the review, 40-year-old historian John Bew. Johnson recruited him for his broad perspective, while at the same time distancing himself from the more conventional choice of a senior government official or politician.

Most importantly, the Integrated Review has turned “Great Britain” from a much-maligned slogan into an extraordinary plan. If the UK can execute against the country, the former empire may have found a global role equal to its resources, capabilities, ambitions – and the historic moment.

Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of the United States’ most influential think tanks on global affairs. He spent more than 25 years at The Wall Street Journal as a foreign correspondent, assistant editor and as the longest-serving editor of the European edition of the newspaper. His latest book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth” – was a New York Times bestseller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe to Inflection Points here, his take a look at the top stories and trends from the past week every Saturday.

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