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EXPERT COMMENT

As the Conservative leadership contest enters its frenetic phase, little has been said yet about how the next UK prime minister should engage with the world.

Under Boris Johnson, the UK liked to see itself as a country willing to ruffle feathers to get things done, and his foreign secretary Liz Truss extolled a more nimble ‘Global Britain’ by declaring in her Mansion House speech that the UK is prepared to ‘do things differently, to think differently and to work differently’.

The speedy rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in early 2021 and the staunch support of Ukraine are cited as examples of this and, throughout his time in 10 Downing Street, Johnson has enjoyed presenting Britain as the insurgent, while those around him juxtaposed this more unruly approach to the world order with the ‘blob’ – the old establishment which used to inhabit the building and were even more entrenched next door at the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

There is some merit to the ‘disrupter’ thesis but much of it ultimately comes across as post-hoc rationalization – both for Johnson’s erratic behaviour and for the consequences of Brexit. And many areas of foreign policy over the past three years followed more consensus-based, multinational paradigms anyway.

Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.