{"id":19939,"date":"2020-03-13T15:38:19","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T15:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/?p=19939"},"modified":"2023-11-23T16:52:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T16:52:19","slug":"the-week-in-foreign-policy-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/2020\/03\/the-week-in-foreign-policy-9\/","title":{"rendered":"The week in foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the week in foreign policy, the world as we know it is being threatened by the outbreak of COVID-19. It is, of course, a very real threat to health, but also a threat to Western democracy. Yasmeen Serhan argues in <\/span>the Atlantic<\/span><\/a> that the Coronavirus is a very real, and very immediate, threat to democracy. Yasmeen writes that: \u201cDemocracy will no doubt be tested by this viral outbreak. In some places where everyday life has virtually come to a standstill, <\/span>it already has been<\/span><\/a>. But perhaps none of these tests is more literal or more immediate than the postponement of a scheduled election, calling into question what countries should do to ensure that democratic processes continue as normal during moments of such uncertainty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the week in foreign policy, the UK\u2019s Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, announced that the UK is to withdraw from the European Union\u2019s aviation safety regulator post-Brexit. According to t<\/span>he Guardian\u2019s<\/span><\/a> Mattha Busby, Shapps said: \u201cas you would expect from an independent nation, we can\u2019t be subject to the rules and laws made by somebody else, so we can\u2019t accept rules from the EU commission and we can\u2019t accept rulings in terms of court cases from the European court of justice or anybody else, any more than the US would.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the <\/span>Economist<\/span><\/a>, the leader asks whether Putin is set to be Russia\u2019s President for life? According to the article, \u2018Mr Putin has pondered various methods of retaining power for some time: merging Russia with Belarus to create a new country to rule over; presiding over an all-powerful Supreme State Council; or becoming prime minister in a new parliamentary system. In the end, he chose the crudest, but perhaps simplest, method\u2014changing the constitution and giving himself an option to stay on. In this, he is following in the footsteps of several post-Soviet central Asian despots, observes Kirill Rogov, a political analyst.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in <\/span>the Guardian<\/span><\/a>, Social Affairs Correspondent Robert Booth has more on the week in foreign policy, and reports that the UK is more nostalgic for empire<\/a> than other ex-colonial powers, such as France or Spain. Booth cites a recent YouGov poll, which suggests that 30% of Britons believe that former colonies were better off for being part of the British Empire. Britons are also more likely to say they would like their country to still have an empire than people in France, Italy, Spain, the <\/span>Netherlands<\/span><\/a>, Belgium, Germany or Japan, the YouGov polling found.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, <\/span>the Times<\/span><\/a> reports on an inquiry into the usefulness of overseas aid, after recent weeks in which rumours have been flying about the potential of aid strategy being drawn back into the Foreign Office. The article notes that: \u2018It is understood that the prime minister wants to change aid rules so the budget can be spent on a wider array of foreign policy objectives, including climate change mitigation, instead of simply on poverty reduction.\u2019 Lucy Fisher, author of the piece, reports that Sarah Champion, the Labour chairwoman of the select committee, said: \u201cWe cannot ignore the controversy that has surrounded UK aid for some years, with reports of wasteful spending and a lack of transparency on certain projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

The British Foreign Policy Group is an independent, non-partisan think tank based in London. Through dynamic research, events and networks, we seek to strengthen the UK\u2019s international engagement, and advance our understanding of global affairs in the 21st Century.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more original research, comment and events from the British Foreign Policy Group, sign up to our Newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Communications & Events Manager, Matt Gillow, examines the news and opinion you might have missed in the week in foreign policy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":21315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19939","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\/19939","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=19939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}