Britain’s role in the world is in question as its army retreats



This week the Guardian newspaper found space on its front page for a history lesson. The year 2015, it reported, is likely to be the first in a century in which the British armed forces will not be engaged in combat somewhere around the world. When troops withdraw from Afghanistan, Britain will truly be at peace for the first time since the outbreak of the First World War.

The names of many of the British battlegrounds of the past century are grimly familiar today – Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen. They show that the shadow of the British empire still lingers over many parts of the world. The defence of empire and then its unwinding involved a lot of conflicts, both big and small. One author has calculated that of the almost 200 countries in the world, only 22 – ranging from Guatemala to the Marshall Islands – have never suffered any kind of British armed incursion.

These imperial memories only serve to underline how much has changed in Britain over the past decade. Britain has just slipped to fifth place in the global ranking of defence spending, with the army due to be reduced from more than 100,000 to 85,000 by 2018. A country that used its navy to project force abroad for centuries has no working aircraft carriers at present. Two are being built, though they will have no aircraft until 2020.

But more important is the change of mood in the country since 2003 when the then prime minister, Tony Blair, sent troops into Iraq beside the Americans to topple Saddam Hussein. Politicians and the general public are now united in reluctance to get engaged in foreign wars.

Some cite Britain’s multicultural society, where a Muslim minority opposes sending the army to fight foreign wars of choice that in the recent past have overwhelmingly been in Islamic-majority lands.

But the stronger reason is that a generation of politicians believe their credibility has been undermined by the false pretences under which the Iraq war was launched, namely the destruction of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. A clear majority of British people now believe the Iraq war was wrong. Britain’s generals are suspected of over-promising and under-delivering in Iraq and Afghanistan, to justify their budgets.

The outcomes of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan certainly offer no encouragement to the war party. Even the campaign to topple Libya’s Colonel Muammar Qaddafi that seemed so successful in 2011 now appears to have bequeathed only chaos and rule by tribal-based militia.

For decades, it has been a principle of foreign policy that Britain must stick with its US ally, to ensure that it would get American help when needed, as in the 1982 battle to retake the Falkland Islands from Argentina. Without that assistance, the war could easily have ended in defeat.

Now, with a president in Washington who is keen to stay out of foreign entanglements, these calculations are outdated. Even more since the focus of US power is likely to be the Asia-Pacific region, where Nato allies have not much to offer.

Now that its military interventionism – more recently disguised as peace-building – is in abeyance, the question of what Britain’s role in the world is being reassessed. At the centre of the debate is the meaning of the parliamentary vote last August rejecting a motion to join the US and France in a missile strike to punish the Syrian regime for using chemical weapons.

Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office minister in charge of the Middle East until last year, believes that the lost vote is a watershed for British foreign policy. By tradition, a British prime minister does not have to seek a vote in parliament to approve military action. By asking parliament to approve such a limited, arm’s length military action, which held no prospect of boots on the ground, he has tied the hands of all future prime ministers.

In effect, Britain will not be able to make any promises to its allies, Mr Burt says, as these will always be subject to the calculations of members of parliament. Military action may be limited to defending old colonial territories close the hearts of parliamentary backbenchers, such as Gibraltar or the Falklands.

There are many who disagree with Mr Burt. They point out that the Syria vote was a special case that, while revealing Britain as a more pacific power, at least yielded a positive result in Syria agreeing to dismantle its chemical weapons. Military intervention, however limited at the beginning, could have aggravated the war, while almost certainly failing to remove the regime.

While the debate continues, allies have drawn their own conclusions, with some praising British restraint while others see a military power tied down by the legacy of Iraq. France, meanwhile, seems to be stepping into Britain’s old place as America’s war partner of choice. The French army is intervening in Mali and the Central African Republic and the French president, Francois Hollande, has just been feted in Washington. France’s refusal to join in the Iraq war is forgotten in Washington.

For their part, British defence chiefs talk of 2015 as a “strategic pause” after a century of war. They point out that there are few European nations apart from Britain and France with the will, training and experience to intervene abroad, and their services will surely be called on again, either together or with the Americans. Germany, the richest and most populous country in Europe, has experimented with foreign intervention, but has pulled back. Sooner or later, they hope, British boots will be on the march again.

That remains to be seen. Domestic concerns – such as the break-up of the United Kingdom if Scotland votes for independence in a referendum this September – are higher up the agenda than slaying dragons abroad.

aphilps@thenational.ae

On Twitter: @aphilps

Joker: Folie a Deux

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson

Director: Todd Phillips 

Rating: 2/5

The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home. 

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The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

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Tailors and retailers miss out on back-to-school rush

Tailors and retailers across the city said it was an ominous start to what is usually a busy season for sales.
With many parents opting to continue home learning for their children, the usual rush to buy school uniforms was muted this year.
“So far we have taken about 70 to 80 orders for items like shirts and trousers,” said Vikram Attrai, manager at Stallion Bespoke Tailors in Dubai.
“Last year in the same period we had about 200 orders and lots of demand.
“We custom fit uniform pieces and use materials such as cotton, wool and cashmere.
“Depending on size, a white shirt with logo is priced at about Dh100 to Dh150 and shorts, trousers, skirts and dresses cost between Dh150 to Dh250 a piece.”

A spokesman for Threads, a uniform shop based in Times Square Centre Dubai, said customer footfall had slowed down dramatically over the past few months.

“Now parents have the option to keep children doing online learning they don’t need uniforms so it has quietened down.”

liverpool youngsters

Ki-Jana Hoever

The only one of this squad to have scored for Liverpool, the versatile Dutchman impressed on his debut at Wolves in January. He can play right-back, centre-back or in midfield.

 

Herbie Kane

Not the most prominent H Kane in English football but a 21-year-old Bristolian who had a fine season on loan at Doncaster last year. He is an all-action midfielder.

 

Luis Longstaff

Signed from Newcastle but no relation to United’s brothers Sean and Matty, Luis is a winger. An England Under-16 international, he helped Liverpool win the FA Youth Cup last season.

 

Yasser Larouci

An 18-year-old Algerian-born winger who can also play as a left-back, Larouci did well on Liverpool’s pre-season tour until an awful tackle by a Sevilla player injured him.

 

Adam Lewis

Steven Gerrard is a fan of his fellow Scouser, who has been on Liverpool’s books since he was in the Under-6s, Lewis was a midfielder, but has been converted into a left-back.

MATCH INFO

Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Son 1', Kane 8' & 16') West Ham United 3 (Balbuena 82', Sanchez og 85', Lanzini 90' 4)

Man of the match Harry Kane

Brief scores:

England: 290 & 346

Sri Lanka: 336 & 243

Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5