09 November 2015

LSE: Investing for Influence

The LSE Diplomacy Commission report calls for the government to recognise the crisis of confidence of British foreign policy and take a broader approach to foreign policy rather than thinking in terms of narrow British interests.

The UK has become increasingly insular, with a succession of governments shying away from significant foreign policy engagements. As a result, British foreign policy lacks a clear purpose and suffers from an incoherent approach to the distribution of resources.

This is one of the conclusions of the LSE Diplomacy Commission report. The Commission was convened by LSE IDEAS, LSE's Foreign Policy think-tank, to understand Britain's place in the world and included amongst its members Dr Tarak Barkawi, Pauline Neville-Jones, and Stephen King.

It calls for the government to recognise this crisis of confidence and take a broader approach to foreign policy rather than thinking in terms of narrow British interests. The Commission argues that the UK’s diverse society, language, centrality to global finance and significant soft power make it particularly well placed to act as a global diplomatic power. Its strengths, however, are being eroded by an increasingly insular view of Britain’s place in the world and funding cuts to the Foreign Commonwealth Office, which has turned the country into a “reluctant internationalist”.

This can be seen in the government’s current ambivalence towards European integration, its approach to immigration, in particular restrictions on student visas, and to the refugee crisis. These attitudes, along with the dominance of narrow commercial interests in recent British foreign policy, the Commission states, threaten to undermine not only the dynamism of British economy and culture, but also damage Britain’s reputation as an open and fair society.

The Commission stresses that Britain operates in a complex and increasingly globalised international system. The UK, being home to the most ethno-culturally diverse society in the world, is 'hyperconnected' within that system: a unique advantage that provides an opportunity for Britain to play significant convening and entrepreneurial roles in addressing global challenges.

However, the Commission notes that for too long the UK’s approach to international strategy has failed to engage the realities and experiences of its diverse society. And in recent years the protection of particular departments over others has built arbitrary and peculiar incentives into the process of strategy: the report brands mandatory GDP-based targets for departmental budgets as "strategically and economically incoherent".

The report calls for foreign policy to be the subject of a broad and open debate that includes all elements of British society, and that thinks strategically about the UK’s role in the world.

Full report

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