Beyond Brexit: on the Occasion of Reinvention of Britain’s Global Role

Abstract

In the middle of March, 2021, the UK prime minister presented to Parliament the integrated review of security, defence, development and foreign policy of Britain. The vision it pictures amounts to the final renunciation of the famous Churchill’s three circles doctrine. To better explain this thoroughgoing paradigmatic change, it might be useful to consider the meanings assigned of it by those immediately involved. In this article, it is argued that Brexit was in no small part the result of the UK being unable to turn round the development of the regional integration process on the European continent in directions, corresponding to British preference. With the withdrawal of the country from the EU having been accomplished, the reappraisal of its global role became an existential problem for London. In particular, conspicuous divergence between the foreign policy courses of Britain and the EU appears unavoidable in the observable future. Paradoxical, seemingly irrational nature of this experience, inter alia, prompts its interpretivist analytical treatment. Thus, in the article, rationale and reflection delivered by British key politicians and foreign policy experts, as concerns the ideas of “Global Britain”, “Anglosphere” and “Indo-Pacific tilt”, are contemplated not as direct assertions of intent, but as important reference points for timely modification of national foreign policy strategy. Talking about “Anglosphere” comes across like searching for a substitution to the European Union to serve as a framework for British foreign policy, while the “Indo-Pacific tilt” narrative comes laden with hopes for making Brexit a true story of success. The Conservative government perceives the country as a liberal and cosmopolitan middleranking power with exceptional foreign policy potential, soaring to new global heights amidst multilateral networks and bilateral partnerships it is precast to further cultivate.