Introduction

Abstract

Is the idea of a ‘national interest’ still relevant to British foreign policy-making? If so, how should it be defined and what policies should the UK government adopt to advance it? These are questions that have achieved a new salience in contemporary debates on British foreign policy. There are a number of reasons for this. The most prominent is Britain’s propensity to use force against other states in the last two decades. Interventions against the Federal Yugoslav Republic (FYR) Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and the call for action over Syria’s civil war, divided domestic opinion and attracted criticism (Burall, Donnelly and Weir 2006; Bailey, Iron and Strachan 2013; Reifler et al. 2014). In addition, the global financial crisis of 2007–2008 led to calls for a scaling back of UK commitments abroad, reduction of aid spending and reappraisal of Britain’s place in the world (Hall 2013; Foreman 2013; Hutton 2009). The 2014 referendum on Scottish independence and the proposal to have one on British membership of the European Union (EU) have raised questions over British identity and future defence and foreign policy (Oliver 2013; Whitman 2012; Scotland Institute 2013). Meanwhile, within the policy community, there has been concern over the manner in which foreign policy is made, with numerous commentators suggesting a lack of strategic thinking at the heart of government (Strachan 2005, 2009; Cornish and Dorman 2009; Newton, Colley and Sharpe 2010; P. Porter 2010).