A new internationalism for a Labour government

Patrick Costello on ways for Labour to make an impact on the global scene

[Original print publication Sep 2024]

The world is a very different place for David Lammy than it was for Robin Cook in 1997. Then, a relatively stable world order was led by the United States, with western power globally dominant and operating through strong revived multilateral institutions including the UN and its agencies, the newly created WTO and the international financial institutions. Britain’s diplomatic power was also amplified through its EU membership: as Herman Van Rompuy, the first President of the European Council put it, “for the UK to make its voice heard in the world Europe acts as a megaphone”.

That world is no more. Thanks in no small part to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when those running the rules-based order decided that the rules didn’t apply to them, it is now looking more than shaky. The UN Security Council is paralysed and unable to deal with the most basic violations of international law, whether by Russia in Ukraine or  Israel in Gaza. China’s global reach has accompanied its economic rise resulting in in it becoming an ever stronger competitor to the US led West. However, unlike in the Cold War, most countries across the world are refusing to take sides with either great power. Instead, they are taking decisions based on maximising their own national interests, choosing the best for them of the economic offers being made by China and the West. Meanwhile the UK has lost its European “megaphone” and in recent years has looked ever more irrelevant to the decisions on the global stage.

So what should Labour be demanding of Foreign Minister Lammy’s  strategy for UK diplomacy. The following are a few initial pointers to the way a Labour government might strengthen the UK’s voice, reputation and impact in this new multipolar world:

1. Use available assets: The UK remains one of a handful of countries with a diplomatic network capable of global reach. It is still a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a member of the G7. Combined with the soft power of the English language and the ability to project that soft power through a combination of the World Service, the British Council (reversing the self-harming cuts to these two will be essential), the Commonwealth and the continuing attractiveness of UK universities, the UK should have many advantages over other middle-ranking powers.
2. Reframe the UK’s relationships with its former colonies: Many of the UK’s diplomatic assets are a legacy of what, for many countries around the world, is a painful imperial past. British diplomacy still tends to tell others what to do more than it listens and responds to the concerns of others. It is impossible to change the past but it is possible both to acknowledge it and to develop more equal relationships with our former colonies, possibly through a radical reinvention of the Commonwealth. The ever increasing diversity of British society can be actively mobilised as an additional asset in this work.
3. Use the whole of Government: Diplomacy will only work if backed up with the full range of policies across government. This means it is time to make demands on levels of development aid (currently scheduled to drop in the next 12 months) and to restore the UK’s reputation as a donor. It also means insisting that the Treasury puts debt relief back on the agenda in the G7, demanding the Education Department supports providing extra scholarships to UK universities and more.
4. Actively seek UN reform: The demand for UN and IMF/World Bank reform has been an insistent one for decades from the Global South. Institutions set up after the Second World War were simply not designed for responding to the climate emergency, and their structures no longer reflect the global balance of power. If the UK could become an effective voice within the G7 and the UN Security Council supporting those calls for reform, it would go a long way to rebuilding relationships with the Global South as well as putting pressure on other Security Council members to support reform. Labour should be demanding this also because it is in the national interest.

All of this could emerge from David Lammy’s announced progressive realism and Labour should seek to develop a common platform on this agenda with sister parties across the world.

What will make it harder in practice is where this approach clashes with the deep and longstanding Foreign Office reflex to align with the US. So far on the Middle East, by renewing funding to UNRWA and removing the objection to the ICC case against Israel, the signs are good but the real test will be over the full suspension of arms sales to the Israelis over Gaza.