Foreign-Policy-Home-Krishnan

Foreign Policy Begins at Home: Britain’s Domestic Weakness as Strategic Risk

Britain imagines itself as a nation built on past influence, once spanning every corner of the globe. From the long shadow of the Pax Britannica to the blueprints of post-war international order, Britain has often acted as a core architect in the structure of global affairs. In recent decades, Britain’s  ability to act strategically has …

Dai-Johnson-Ungovernables

The Ungovernables: Foreign Policy Impacts for Britain

The litany of crises that plague the United Kingdom dig deep into historic divisions that impact its foreign policy. The overwhelming influence of London’s financial service sector on the world stage as compared to the rest of the country. The fractured love-hate relationship with Europe which has caused multiple constitutional crises. Even the inability of …

Euro-Prospects-Bridging-the-Channel

Bridging the Channel: The UK’s Post-Brexit Return to Europe

Welcome to the British Institute of Global Affairs’ first big collaborative project. This was undertaken with Euro Prospects, a European policy publication, and aims to bridge the divide between the UK and Europe by showcasing a variety of approaches that can be undertaken on topics of shared interests. In the first edition of its kind, …

Sakshi-Bansal-Y20

What the UK Brings to the Table: Reflections on Representation, Diversity, and Diplomacy from the Y20

When we think about the UK on the global stage, we often default to institutions such as Parliament, trade agreements, or foreign policy doctrines. But at forums like the G20, representation is not just institutional, it is deeply human. It is shaped by who sits in the room, what they carry with them, and how …

Y7-Lola-Milroy-Paris

Practicalities and Principles: Why the G7 Struggles with Climate Change

The tensions between the practicalities of consensus, including accommodating certain members’ views, and the principle of addressing current, global crises based on shared values have been particularly clear at the G7 this year.  As a Y7 representative of UK youth on ecological crises to the G7, I was responsible for representing the views of young …

Harrier-John-McCabe

Flying Jets in Modern Directions

Kerosene is part of an indispensable group of molecules imported to fuel British air travel. Given that much of the world’s economy depends on it, it would be no surprise to find that open conflict in the Gulf—the world’s largest concentration of transiting hydrocarbons—has challenged supply to Trumpian levels of deprivation. The United Kingdom’s Department …

UN-Security-Council

Multipolarity in an Undemocratic World

Editor’s Note: This piece was uploaded under the editor’s name but was authored by a contributor identifying as David. In Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, de Tocqueville argued that American institutions are not simply held up by law, but through a multifaceted and complex relationship between the separation of powers, popular engagement in direct …

Agatha-Gorski-Shadows-Project

Season 4, Podcast #4: Agatha Gorski

As we reach our penultimate episode for the series, we turn to a practitioner whose work before and during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has persevered in promoting culture as a form of national resilience. Agatha Gorski is the co-founder of the Shadows Project, a Kyiv-based NGO that protects and decolonises Ukrainian culture. Our conversation …