Ah, the United Kingdom. The country that invented Shakespeare’s language. The nation that houses Oxford and Cambridge, the only universities that challenge Harvard’s fame in the world. It is also the nation that gave the world Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady; and the nation that gave the world the fundamentals of Capitalism through Adam Smith (well he was actually Scottish), and lodged and later buried on its soil Karl Marx, the man whose life work focused on bashing Capitalism and promoting a proletarian revolution. The only nation in human history that could claim for almost 200 years that the Sun never set on its empire. Yes, this same UK that, to this day, is hated, feared, and respected at the same time.
Much has been written (justifiably and unjustifiably) about England/Great Britain/UK historically and its actions in the world in the 17th to 20th century (Near & Middle East, India, China subjugation and Opium wars, North America, Africa, …), so I am not getting into any of that. I am interested with the “Brain” role that the UK is still playing in the West, especially in the Anglo-Saxon axis, even with the domination of the US and the loss of much of its empire.
Although UK’s influence in the world took a big hit between the end of the first world war and the early years after the second one (when it lost much of its empire) it succeeded in maintaining its influence over the West’s policy making, starting with dragging the US into overthrowing the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. Direct and indirect interference continued in the Suez war of 1956 (although this one did not come out well for it), the Biafra war in 1966-68, and a multitude of other domains, all leading to the second Iraq invasion, in which Tony Blair, the Labor Prime Minister, joins up with George Bush Jr, a gung-ho Republican, to illegally and unjustifiably invade Iraq, with the consequences that we are still seeing there.
The other day I was thinking about the whole BREXIT saga and all the ups and downs. You may not know that the UK joining the EU (or rather the European Economic Community-EEC, as it was called then) was just as painful. The country joined in 1973, but was much playing around and whining and complaining, then moving to a referendum and finally voting to stay in the EEC in 1975, prompting a Guardian article line: “the formal end of the 14-year controversy over Europe”. Some bad mouths say UK’s joining was a worm introduced into an apple to the benefit of the Anglo-Saxon axis. So the UK was a pain when joining, undermined the EU during its stay, and created havoc when it left the EU.
Now Aukus and the UK’s role in this alliance. As I mentioned earlier, I see the UK as the brain of this alliance. It probably knows the most about the region (historical influence and cultural knowledge) and it has influence over Australia. Furthermore, it wants to join the Pacific Trade Pact, composed of Pacific Ocean nations! UK is not a Pacific Ocean nation, it does not supply any submarine technology on this deal and if it is ever needed it is not in a position to militarily support Australia much, but it gets itself anchored on Aukus. If that is not a masterpiece of diplomacy, I don’t know what is.
So after royally messing up with the EU, it now plans to be a thorn on the side of China. I guess, habits do not die too easily! Nobody has invited it, but the “Global UK” is back albeit in a different form, leaving the dirty work to its 5-eyes allies: the hand work to Australia and the muscle work to the US.
Paris, September 27, 2021,
Zeejay