The foreign policy priorities of the next Labour government

By Luke Bozier / @lukebozier

2015 or 2020 will see a return to power for the Labour Party – if we get our acts together in the meantime and present a winning team and manifesto to the electorate. That government will inherit a foreign policy agenda and environment different to the one which Gordon Brown or the coalition inherited in 2007 and 2010. The world is changing rapidly, and the next Labour government will have to answer the question – what is Britain’s role in a changing world in the first quarter of the 21st century?

Britain’s role in the world is ever-evolving, and is a never-ending source of head scratching among the political class. We are no longer an imperial power, but we do have an awful lot of influence for a country our size. We would find it hard to take large-scale military action on our own, but we have one of the world’s largest and most advanced militaries. We don’t have the power to dictate how foreign countries should behave, but our values, culture and way of life are respected and emulated around the world.

Britain is a major player on the world stage, and will be for the foreseeable future, but we are more at the whim of global trends and events than ever. The next Labour government must approach foreign policy from a pragmatic, yet confident, stand-point. We have much to offer the world, and Labour governments over the last century have done a great deal to advance our belief in a better, peaceful and more equitable global community. We should start now to look ahead five, ten and twenty years in order to understand what our foreign policies should be today.

What will the top three foreign policies of the next Labour government be? What should Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander (or whoever replaces him) address in his first 100 days in office?

1) Global power is more diffuse than it was in the 20th century, but the journey from one or two big powers to five or more big powers is not yet complete; Britain must use its assets and voice to bring BRICS and other countries more actively into the world arena. We are a small nation which is also a global hub – we will benefit in many ways from the rise of China, Brazil and India, but in order to benefit we need closer political and commercial relationships. Britain’s post-colonial base of influence has been drawn from our influence in Europe and the United States; Britain’s 21st century base of influence should come from our ability to influence decisions in Brasilia, Delhi and Beijing whilst remaining a strong player in Europe and a partner with Washington DC.

2) Liberal intervention is much more acceptable, indeed necessary, than it ever has been. The NATO success in Libya, in using our military assets to support an indigenous uprising, has shown that humanitarian intervention can happen without messy full-scale invasions of the type we saw in Iraq. The world has fewer oppressive dictatorships today than it had in 1997, and we must be proud of Labour’s role in changing the global doctrine to one which supports the kind of action which made the Libyan uprising possible. However there are still nations where people are oppressed politically, with violence and torture. We must always be ready to act, in coalition with other international partners, when we are called on for help by groups like the Libyan rebel movement. We should use our influence from point 1 above to try to expand the group of countries willing to use its aircraft, boats and special forces to support indigenous uprisings.

3) Terrorism in the name of Islam is on the decline, but Britain must use its position in the world, as well as its cultural and economic assets, to ensure that Muslim countries are liberal and forward-looking, in order to defeat ‘Islamo-political’ terror once and for all. The vast majority of people living between Mauritania and Iran are peaceful and care more about jobs and their childrens’ future than the twisted agendas of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. But those groups succeeded in painting a picture of the ‘Christian’ west vs the ‘Muslim’ east for years, which resulted in popular support for their aims. This trend has reversed dramatically over the last decade, but we must use our soft power assets to permanently remove the misconception that the West has imperial plans on the Muslim world. We must push for Turkey’s entry into the European Union, or at least a strengthened and more workable Mediterranean Union and be prepared for countries like Tunisia and Libya to make similar moves in the 2020s. We should build stronger social and economic ties to Muslim nations, push for democracy in the remaining Muslim dictatorships and demonstrate that we see those nations and their populations as equals rather than aliens.

We have to react to global changes, whilst pushing for the kind of world we would like to live in. Power, democracy and capitalism have been globalised beyond recognition – that’s the main trend we must react to. We have invaluable global assets including our economic might, our advanced military, our culture, way of life and values, and indeed our language – those are our ‘levers’ through which we can influence the world. An accurate analysis of the trends and changes we face will result in successful foreign policies for the next Labour government.

There are huge opportunities, and remaining dangers from the big geopolitical challenges of the last twenty years. We should face the world with confident, muscular optimism, build new partnerships, use our soft power more and be ready to push where necessary for the better world that we all know exists.