British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a television press conference at 10 Downing Street on 22 February 2021 in London, England.
Leon Neal | Getty Images
Has British Prime Minister Boris Johnson finally found his country the global role it has eluded since losing its empire?
Did the reverent, ambitious, moody hair leader of the United Kingdom – the biographer, admirer and sometimes emulator of Winston Churchill – provide the blueprint for his own shot at greatness?
Or did Johnson’s critics think that the release of “Global Britain in a Competitive Age” was released this week? – the impressive leadership of the government of her majesty for 114 days for the future – is brave but insufficient cover for the historic Brexit mistake that will stain his legacy forever?
One thing is for sure. This document was a welcome reminder of the British strategic seriousness after further complaining about national deterioration to Oprah Winfrey’s seat with rogue royals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (which includes a visit to their farm in California and his rescue chickens).
Johnson’s paper also comes as a late attempt to respond Dean Acheson’s provocative West Point speech from almost six decades ago in 1962, in which he argued: ‘Britain has lost an empire and has yet to find a role.’
At the time, the legendary American diplomat praised the “great importance” of the British application to become part of the then six-European European Community market, to which he would only join eleven years later in 1973.
His words humiliated then-British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and electrified the media of Fleet Street.
“The attempt to play a separate role,” Acheson said, “that is, a role outside of Europe, a role based on a ‘special relationship’ with the United States, a role based on the head of a ‘commonwealth’ that has no political structure, or unity, or power – this role is almost played out. ‘
One wonders what Acheson would say today, more than a year after the UK left the European Union, 47 years after joining, and with its current Prime Minister Boris Johnson now again in search of the elusive role.
It is an honest bet that he will be encouraged by the ambition, clarity and detail of the Integrated Review. Although at the same time he would ask how little attention it pays to what he sees as the central role of the European dimension in the role of Britain.
Maybe the pain of divorce stays too close for a good reflection.
This article nevertheless takes the UK in many of the right directions that can ensure its extraordinary world role as a medium-sized European country with world-leading security and intelligence agencies.
It also demonstrates a thorough understanding of the most pressing global challenges, making it an important reading for Biden administrative officials. It is inspiring as a rallying point for fellow democracies.
“History has shown that democratic societies are the strongest proponents of an open and resilient international order,” Johnson wrote in the front page of the newspaper, “in which global institutions demonstrate their ability to protect human rights, deal with tensions between major powers. “Addressing conflict, tackling instability and climate change, and sharing prosperity through trade and investment.”
The most notable of Johnson’s new ambitions for Britain, as he put it in his foreword to the paper, is to ‘secure our status as a science and technology superpower by 2030’.
Eight pages outline how the UK intends to do so by expanding research and development spending, strengthening its global network of innovation partnerships and enhancing national skills – including a Global Talent Visa around the world to attract the best and brightest.
“In the coming years, countries playing a leading role in critical and emerging technologies will be at the forefront of global leadership,” the paper said, identifying quantum computers, artificial intelligence and cyber domains as focus areas.
Without dusting off the overused term ‘special relationship’, the UK will place the highest priority on ties with the United States (‘no one more valuable to the British people’) and at the same time its international focus on the Indo- Pacific Ocean ’tilt’. .
Johnson invited leaders from Australia, South Korea and India to attend. at its G7 summit in June, and he visits India in April to deepen efforts to deepen relations with the world’s largest democracy, which was under the British Raj until 1947.
There is much more on the pages that is considered to be the most important strategic rethinking of the UK since the Cold War, which this week will be followed by its military dimension. The bumper sticker is that the UK will be a problem-solving and divisive nation with a global perspective. ‘
Many will reason that this article can not undo the strategic mistake of Brexit. They point to the inevitable, long-term hit for the UK economy, both to London as a financial center and to the UK as a local manufacturing base for European markets.
They question whether the United Kingdom, with a population of 0.87% of the world total and an economy that is sixth in the world, will ever have the influence to compete for what he, as one of the leaders of a European Union with she enjoyed a total of 5.8. % of the world population and 17.8% of the world economy.
That said, if Johnson’s goal was to confirm his Brexit decision, the newspaper is coming at a good time. Criticism is mounting about EU leadership and bureaucracy in handling Covid-19 and vaccine distribution, and the UK is performing well as a comparison.
The most important of the document is the pragmatic, non-ideological and intelligent framework for the future. There are none of the Boris Johnson bubbles in an article designed as a guideline for action.
One can see the fingerprints of the man Johnson chose to lead the review, 40-year-old historian John Bew. Johnson recruited him for his broad perspective and at the same time steered away from the more conventional choice of a senior government official or politician.
Most importantly, the Integrated Review ‘Global Britain’ has changed from a very bad slogan to an extraordinary plan. If the UK can act against it, 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 issues. He worked for The Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as a foreign correspondent, assistant managing editor and as the longest-running 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 here to Inflection Points, which watches the top stories and trends of the past week every Saturday.
For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @ CNBCopinion on Twitter.