Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
David Lammy

Labour’s foreign policy will be realistic about us as a nation, not nostalgic about what we used to be

David Lammy, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves arriving in Paris for a meeting with President Macronin September 2023.
David Lammy, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in Paris for a meeting with Emmanuel Macron, September 2023. Photograph: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

Every time you look at social media, a new international crisis is unfolding. Drones from Iran or one of its proxies hurtling towards Israel. Another Israeli strike kills civilians in Gaza. A Ukrainian city faces a fresh wave of attacks from Putin’s war machine. The revelation of another cyber attack from a hostile state on UK soil. Another threat of a land grab in my ancestral home of Guyana. Another coup in the Sahel. A new flood, wildfire or hurricane – the latest manifestation of the climate emergency that is too often treated as an afterthought.

The world order – which once appeared governed, at least to a large extent, by the rules we helped set up with our allies after the second world war – is now defined by a new form of geopolitical competition. Between the United States and China, over microchips, military might and trade. Between countries defined by the CIA director, William Burns, as the “hedging middle” setting their own agendas in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Between friends and rivals alike over the green transition – on which the future of humanity depends. ,

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.