Diversifying diplomacy: UK strategy in a fragmenting world

Two assumptions have underpinned UK external policy for a generation. The first is that the US would remain the indispensable guarantor of an international security order broadly beneficial to UK interests. The second is that deep integration into global markets ensured UK prosperity and influence, with membership of the EU its central feature. 

These assumptions no longer hold. Weaponised interdependence has become the hallmark of 21st century statecraft, posing as yet unanswered questions for the state’s approach to delivering prosperity and security. 

Britain should respond decisively. First, it should identify chokepoints in a small number of ‘core’ domains that underpin long-term security and productive capacity – we suggest defence, energy and AI. Second, it should identify and build new partnerships that mitigate these vulnerabilities and deepen areas of UK comparative advantage. The paper presents ideas for new partnerships in each of the three domains. 

Success would require a strategic shift in the UK’s approach to policymaking, moving away from a reactive towards a more planned approach that brings together domestic and international levers. The establishment of a Partnership Delivery Office or similar programme function in the Cabinet Office, with genuine coordination, budget and delivery authority, would begin to address this gap.