{"id":78,"date":"2025-08-07T20:56:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/politicsuk\/?p=78"},"modified":"2025-10-10T13:32:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T13:32:31","slug":"chapter-26","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/politicsuk\/part-6-the-policy-process\/chapter-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Chapter 26<\/h1>\n\n\n

British foreign and defence policy<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Chapter Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The 2020s was always set to be a very challenging decade for Britain\u2019s foreign, security and defence policies. This is partly for structural reasons \u2013 the onset of intense globalisation has created a new context for all external relations in second-rank powers such as the major states of Europe \u2013 and also because a number of structural challenges, like the \u2018climate emergency\u2019 or the inequalities built into the global economy, cannot be ignored since they will quickly have a direct impact on countries like Britain. The challenges also arise for specifically British reasons, however, because Britain itself has changed so much in recent years. Whatever else it was, the 2021 Integrated Review was based around a detailed and thoughtful analysis of the unique challenges Britain faces. It is another question how well its conclusions were acted upon, but the intellectual grasp of the challenges was beyond question. That grasp extended to the 2025 Strategic Defence Review, though the economic circumstances the country was then facing were less favourable than at any time since the global financial crisis of 2008. Britain\u2019s policy-making structures remained generally effective, notwithstanding some years of chaos and upheaval. But the incoming Labour government was all too aware that it had to somehow create a more efficient mobilisation of all the country\u2019s resources to address the transformational problems that Britain faced, after decades of essential continuity in the matter of external relations. There had not been a time since the first decade of the twentieth century when Britain\u2019s foreign and defence policy was in such a state of internal and external transformation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Learning Objectives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  • To understand the contemporary context of policy-making for foreign and defence policy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • To be able to assess the factors of continuity and change in the substance of British policy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • To see how policy-making works, in outline, and understand the dynamism of the process.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • To be able to assess the extent, and some of the substance, of formulating strategically effective and coherent policies for British foreign and defence policies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • To formulate a view of the most important foreign and defence challenges currently facing Britain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Quizzes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Test your knowledge with the Chapter 26 quizzes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Quiz<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n