UK’S ‘GLOBAL BRITAIN’ VISION:
Delusion, Deceit or Neither?
evident in Gao Jian’s commentary in Global Times. Coining the ‘Global Britain’ vision as a strategic deceit of the Johnson government, Gao’s scepticism is based on the three rationales from economic, diplomatic and strategic domains. Economic wise, Gao sees Britain caught within its domestic economic crisis and as such, lacks the material basis to push such global vision. In terms of diplomacy, the UK is not only having an uneasy relationship with the EU, but also facing deteriorating ties with China (second’s largest economy) as well as mired in disadvantageous alliance with the US. Such challenges, to Gao, is not working in favour of the UK’s ‘new’ role within the ‘Global Britain’ vision. As far as strategic domain is concerned, Gao considers the UK as losing its own strategic autonomy in its alliance with the US and this, in turn, hampers its strategic manoeuvring in responding to the volatile international environment today. Chee Leong Lee April 27, 2021
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he first discourse draws from the European-centric perspective in which Jeremy Shapiro and Nick Witney published their piece in Foreign Affairs magazine. Calling the ‘Global Britain’ vision as a delusionary promise, both authors see the Johnson government not facing the reality of which the UK is in. From COVID-19’s economic and public health impacts to the nation’s financial constraint, the two scholars view the UK as a middle power that is short of having the
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necessary conditions in pulling out an expensive plan as the ‘Global Britain’ vision. Instead, both suggest that the Johnson government seeks its strengths closer at home and for that purpose, charts its economic and foreign policy paths through close cooperation with the EU. In other words, Shapiro and Witney see no basis for the UK to engage Asia or Indo-Pacific independently since its economic, cultural and geographical fortunes lie with the European continent and not the other part of the world. The second discourse comes from the Chinese-centric perspective that is
The Three Realities Regardless of either of these two discourses, these scholars have yet to take into account the three stark realities in Asia or Indo-Pacific (as coined by the US-led alliance and the UK) region. First and foremost, Asia or Indo-Pacific is the future in which the global economy will revolve around. In particular, the fast-emerging ASEAN region has the potential to be an even bigger economic driver in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the total e-commerce market size of six Southeast Asian
