{"id":19851,"date":"2020-02-07T16:54:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T16:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/?p=19851"},"modified":"2023-11-23T16:44:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T16:44:56","slug":"the-week-in-foreign-policy-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/2020\/02\/the-week-in-foreign-policy-5\/","title":{"rendered":"The week in foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s been a big week in politics around the world, and a massive week in foreign policy, with the race to be the Democratic nominee for President in the United States kicking off in Iowa. Closer to home, the United Kingdom has been caught up on the UN\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/2020\/02\/whats-on-the-agenda-for-cop26\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Climate Change Conference<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, hosted in Glasgow in November, and who will preside over it &#8211; with even David Cameron being hailed as a potential COP26 President at one point.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In further British foreign policy news, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/uk\/1236790\/christian-persecution-UK-foreign-policy-priority-desmond-swain-christianity-crackdown\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Express<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reported that Christian persecution overseas could be about to become a priority for the government. According to the newspaper, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a religious literacy programme will be rolled out to ensure that civil servants and diplomats are no longer ignorant of the dire threats facing Christians around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elsewhere this week in foreign policy, Washington is worrying that China may be trying to develop its own relationship with Israel &#8211; threatening the historically strong links between Washington and Tel Aviv. Daniel J. Samet writes in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2020\/02\/03\/can-china-replace-the-united-states-in-israel\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Foreign Policy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that talk of new Chinese-Israeli trade deals point to more complicated relationships, on both sides, with the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/raab-aims-to-negotiate-early-free-trade-deal-with-australia\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City A.M<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Angharad Carrick suggests that Dominc Raab, British Foreign Secretary, is focussing efforts on establishing relations and carving out an early trade deal with Australia. The Foreign Secretary was in Canberra this week, holding talks with <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Australia\u2019s foreign minister Marise Payne to discuss future trade and investment opportunities as well. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Carrick, Raab and his Australian counterpart are also expected to discuss how the UK can provide assistance in the response to the bushfire crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ahead of Ireland\u2019s general election on Saturday, Eoin Drea, senior research officer at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, writes in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/irelands-never-been-more-alone-eu-brexit-elections\/?utm_source=POLITICO.EU&amp;utm_campaign=83055287fd-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_02_07_06_05&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_10959edeb5-83055287fd-190407813\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">POLITICO<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Ireland has never been more alone in the EU. \u2018With Britain gone and the EU increasingly dominated by Paris and Berlin, Ireland is an economic outlier\u2019 Drea writes, as Ireland is now the EU\u2019s only purely globalist country left.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other European news, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/9b75e4ce-466d-11ea-aee2-9ddbdc86190d\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Financial Times<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> explores the future of the European Union after Brexit. Smaller, wealthier nations will feel the loss of their ally and partner in budget talks. The balance of power has shifted further in French and German favour, and the dominance of eurozone countries is enhanced. Britain leaves countries like the Netherlands and Sweden, who favour fiscal orthodoxy, free trade, open markets and the NATO alliance, alone to defend their interests in new ways.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you would like to receive updates about the BFPG\u2019s upcoming research, events and analysis, please <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bfpg.us14.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=77d5a8403df1ab8c7c5251c20&amp;id=1595a2f543\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">subscribe to our newsletter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been a big week in politics around the world, and a massive week in foreign policy, with the race to be the Democratic nominee for President in the United States kicking off in Iowa. Closer to home, the United Kingdom has been caught up&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":21345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-perspectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}