Читать книгу Start Again: How We Can Fix Our Broken Politics - Philip Collins, Philip Collins - Страница 20

Britain is a small country that has stood tall in the world. The economic might that was once imperial has been translated into political and diplomatic power. Britain has always been an active participant in world affairs, on rare occasions alone but more usually as a signatory to and presence in international alliances. Through the economic institutions of the Bretton Woods settlement (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund), NATO, the Security Council of the United Nations and, until recently, the EU, Britain has sat at the top table when the decisions that shaped the post-war world were made. The fear is that this era is coming to a close.

The combination of a more isolationist America and Britain’s departure from the EU might conceivably be a disastrous one for a small island just off the European mainland. Already the pressure for the structure of international government to be a better reflection of the shift of economic power to India and China is raising the question of whether Britain’s status might be an anomaly. The standard retort has been that Britain translates into European for the Americans and mediates with America for the Europeans. Both sides of that formula are now in jeopardy and Britain is left to contemplate a more modest future. There is, of course, a case for modesty. Britain could decide to retreat to the second rank of nations, attendant princes to the main events. The appetite for British involvement in the troubling problems of the world has receded since the intervention in Iraq. Quietude, masquerading as realpolitik, is a tempting option.

It is a temptation that should be resisted. It is part of remaining open to the world that Britain should in no way retreat. Today’s worldwide threats to democracy are severe enough without one of the established democracies voluntarily ceding a position of authority. The case needs to be made to the British people for why it benefits them, as part of a world of pervasive connections, if Britain acts as a moral force for good in world affairs. Of the many things that make Britain the fine nation it is, that concern about the world beyond its own borders is something that we should take pride in.