Before Brexit, U.K. foreign policy was guided by two main principles: to echo and support U.S. positions and, within those constraints, to seek to maximize economic returns from diplomatic efforts, sometimes above other considerations such as humanitarian concerns or even domestic security. Many of the actions taken by the U.K. government in this period were couched in the language of human rights and democracy. But a little digging revealed other possible motivations: Whether it was the unending arms contracts to U.S. allies that were intending to use those very weapons for ambiguous purposes or whether it was the pursuit of sanctions relief to drive more business to London, Britain made hay in the wake of U.S. policy in the past two decades.
Post-Brexit and under a Trump administration that had no strategic positioning on geopolitical issues, the expectation was that the pursuit of economic returns might prevail to the detriment of all else. But this appears to not be the case. Instead, in the moral vacuum left by Washington in the 2017-2020 period, the new British government seems to have found its own voice. And even against this difficult background, the current government speaks with an assertiveness that makes even some natural supporters of their stances feel a slight sense of trepidation. This moral robustness by the British can serve as a lodestar for the kind of principle-led foreign policy promised by the incoming Biden administration.
