British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cannot be faulted for the sheer scale of his ambitious vision for “Global Britain”, his post-Brexit plan to expand Britain’s international network of alliances to broaden the country’s prosperity and standing on the world stage. The big challenge now is whether Mr Johnson will be able to deliver and really restore Britain’s status as a major world power.
In what has been described as the biggest shake-up in British foreign, defence and security policy since the end of the Cold War more than 30 years ago, this week’s publication of Mr Johnson’s Integrated Review has set a number of exciting, if demanding, targets for Britain’s global realignment.
While consolidating long-standing alliances, such as the transatlantic partnership with the US and Nato, Mr Johnson has also declared his determination for Britain to broaden its horizons further. Deeper engagement with the Indo-Pacific region is likely to be the subject of a major re-orientation in London’s diplomatic outlook.
While Britain is no longer a member of the EU, it remains firmly committed to European security
Indeed, Mr Johnson’s desire to forge closer trade and security ties with the likes of India, Japan and South Korea is reflected in the fact that he will be visiting India at the end of next month, while the first major deployment of the Royal Navy’s new 65,000-tonne Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier will be to the Indo-Pacific region later this year.
The Gulf region, too, figures prominently in Downing Street’s plans to revive Britain’s engagement with long-standing allies, with the government keen to foster closer trade and security ties.
But while the Review sets out a number of ambitious proposals for diplomatic and military expansion, it also has some uncompromising words for countries that are deemed to be hostile to Britain’s long-term interests. Russia, in particular, comes in for severe criticism, which is hardly surprising given that the British government still holds Moscow responsible for carrying out the March 2018 poisoning of a Russian dissident, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia on British soil. According to the 100-page Review, Russia is regarded by Britain as being “the most acute direct threat” to its national well-being, while the threat posed by China is seen more in terms of the challenge it poses to Britain’s long-term economic well-being.
These conclusions have, unsurprisingly, provoked an angry response from both China and Russia. Beijing accused Britain of “toadying” to the US, while an editorial in the Global Times, a Chinese state-owned newspaper, argued that this “immature” policy “originated from London’s fantasy of reviving its past glory as a world superpower”. Russia, meanwhile, denounced Britain’s aggressive tone as a “threat to world peace”.
Britain will prioritise defence investments that counter asymmetric warfare. Getty
Certainly, the seriousness of Mr Johnson’s determination to revive Britain’s standing after Brexit is reflected in his controversial decision to increase the country’s stockpile of nuclear warheads. Even though Mr Johnson’s administration is committed to renewing its Trident nuclear deterrent missile system, in recent years successive British governments have gradually reduced the stockpile of available warheads to around 180. So the announcement that the number of available missiles is now to be raised to 260, a 40 per cent increase, represents a significant change in Britain’s nuclear posture, one that suggests that the deterrent will figure far more prominently in the country’s future defence calculations.
Mr Johnson has openly suggested that Britain could use nuclear weapons against any state that inflicted a devastating attack on it using “emerging technologies” like cyber and artificial intelligence.
Previously, the submarine-launched Trident nuclear missile system was regarded very much as a last resort, only to be used if Britain itself came under a nuclear attack. Known as “ mutually assured destruction”, this policy is a relic of the Cold War, based on the belief that hostile states would be dissuaded from launching nuclear attacks if they understood that they might suffer wholesale devastation in return.
But in an age when new technologies make it possible to cause immense damage to a nation’s well-being by destroying its internet connection or satellite communications, the British government’s fundamental change of attitude towards its nuclear deterrent is simply a reflection of the rapidly changing nature of modern warfare. Indeed, a key element of Mr Johnson’s plan to boost Britain’s global standing is to implement a significant increase in defence spending with the aim of making Britain’s Armed Forces the most powerful and effective in Western Europe.
Investing in new warships such as the two new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers that are shortly to enter service, is seen as sending a clear signal that, while Britain is no longer a member of the EU, it remains firmly committed to European security by providing military capabilities that no other European country can match.
Certainly, at a time when London and Brussels are locked in an unseemly spat over their respective handling of the coronavirus vaccination programme, with EU President Angela Von Der Leyen even suggesting that Brussels might withhold much-needed vaccines from the UK, there has never been a better time for Mr Johnson to demonstrate his commitment to Europe’s security.
After all the acrimony Brexit has caused, Britain, by expanding its military strength, can demonstrate that it still remains committed to defending Europe’s interests.
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
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Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024. It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine. Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages]. The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts. With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians. Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved. Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world. The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened. He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia. Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”. Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
India 281-7 in 50 ov (Pandya 83, Dhoni 79; Coulter-Nile 3-44)
Australia 137-9 in 21 ov (Maxwell 39, Warner 25; Chahal 3-30)
India won by 26 runs on Duckworth-Lewis Method
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
