Britain Shrinking from the World Stage

We opted out of a Syrian intervention, and we chose to be bit players in the Ukraine crisis where previous prime ministers and foreign secretaries would have dominated the television screens and sought to shape the global response. We have made trade central to our relations with China and Russia, without apparent thought to the wider game of containing their influence. Britain was once one of the few countries to take its global responsibilities seriously, but now prefers trade deals, the PR allure of “soft power”, and a quiet life. We assume things are good, getting better, and will remain as they are, when everything we are supposed to have learnt should tell us they aren’t, might not, and won’t. The sun is out, the horizon is clear, but we aren’t looking.