Britain’s refresh of its defence and foreign policy may mark the moment when the UK sobers up about its place in a world that it now describes as “defined by danger, disorder and division”, and increasingly tilting to authoritarianism.
Gone is the optimistic Global Britain bombast of the Boris Johnson era, set out in the original integrated review only two years ago. That version championed the UK as “a beacon of democratic sovereignty” and one of the most influential countries in the world, and hailed its ability to draw on its post-Brexit status to “do things differently, economically and politically”.
