This latest BFPG report warns that the Government’s failure to inform and involve the public in UK foreign policy threatens the future of Britain’s role on the international stage .  Foreign policy impacts everyone in the UK, yet as the country heads to a future outside the EU, little is being done to encourage citizens to participate in the country’s future direction.

The report calls for a new strategy that brings together defence, trade and diplomacy in an integrated foreign policy which gives the country a much greater ability to secure a prosperous future.  The new policy needs to identify our international position and choices for a sustainable future based on a national debate of our security, prosperity and influence.

The report, ‘Rising Power: Revitalising British Foreign Policy for a new global era’ says that as the world order goes through a period of sustained change, Britain has a growing role to defend and renew the international rules and institutions which we helped establish 70 years ago. These guard our fundamental interests but are under increasing attack from foreign powers.

A new approach to foreign policy will ensure we can create the wealth to fund our defence, and access food, products and raw materials, but Brexit has shown how divided we are on our international role, hence the need for a new national discussion.

Report author Tom Cargill says, “We’re not quite calling on the Government to crowd-source our foreign policy, but the last eighteen months have shown that public discussion of UK foreign policy is poorly served.  We need to be more strategic in our approach to international relations to secure all our interests.  Rooting this in a public discussion has the twin virtues of a more genuinely national understanding of our foreign policy priorities, and the chance to rebuild consensus post-Brexit.”

To view the report in full in .pdf version click HERE or on the image below.