The Foreign Office has come under sustained attack over the handling of the north African revolution. William Hague has ordered a radical overhaul of Britain’s foreign policy starting with a major restructuring of his own department.
Ministers have ruled the UK must rely more on ‘soft power’ than military might to shape the world we want. The realities of today’s fast-changing world have finally caught up with the UK, Hague believes. And the Foreign Office (FCO) is now focused on building a network of new allies to compliment our diminishing military capabilities.
Two realities are forcing the change.
We are skint and can no longer keep spending the sums needed to maintain our military strength. And as emerging countries get richer, they are becoming more assertive.
Britain’s relative military power will diminish whether we like it or not.
So how does David Cameron see us projecting power with no money? Simple. Britain will become the epicentre of a ‘networked world’. We’ll build friends and alliances where we never had them and shape the world that way instead.
The National Security Council (NSC) may soon have a new boss – the amusing and brilliant FCO lifer Sir Kim Darroch, fresh from Brussels. The NSC has, until now, rightly been fixated on Afghanistan and Pakistan. But its focus is changing to encompass IRA terrorism, cyber security and ‘soft power’.
A sub-committee chaired by the able Jeremy Brown looks solely at emerging countries, the second tier of G20 members: Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey. All are becoming wealthier and all are being targeted by the government in a massive networking exercise. Whitehall departments with no obvious foreign policy role will be ordered to develop one.
Ministers and senior officials across government must search for ways of extending the UK’s diplomatic footprint. Even the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will find itself playing a key role in foreign policy. As will universities minister David Willetts. After all, access to Britain’s university education is a sought-after commodity the world over.
Within the FCO change is underway.
Under Labour, fast-trackers were encouraged to work in human resources rather than policy. There are only six on the Russia desk. This half dozen, plus our embassy in Moscow, represents the UK government’s knowledge of Russia.
Hague is revamping the department and making sure that policy thinking is the main focus along with global economics. In January, Hague made the first visit by a UK foreign secretary to Australia and New Zealand since 1994. EU minister David Lidington plans to visit every EU capital, some of which have never been visited by a UK government minister.
There is a huge diplomatic effort going on in Latin America. Hague is so determined to make this work he will open new diplomatic missions despite the cuts. One FCO insider told me: “There are limits to what we can do as a country. The reality is, for the most part, we shall be operating with allies.
We will be much more likely to succeed if we have friends we can rely on.”
George Pascoe-Watson is a partner at Portland Communications
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