LONDON – The British government has set plans to increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons as part of a change in defense policy that recognizes that the world order it helped forge after World War II is collapsing.
Following its exit from the European Union last year, Britain wants to reduce its place in a more volatile and fragmented international system, while strengthening its economy through greater world trade.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this requires the UK to become a more influential agile energy intermediary in the Indo-Pacific region, backed by increased national investment in science and technology.
“The fortune of the British people is almost uniquely related to events at the far end of the world,” Johnson told Parliament as he presented a plan for UK foreign policy aspirations after Brexit. “The UK could never turn inward or settle for the narrow horizons of a regional foreign policy,” he said.
Government officials have long promoted Brexit as a way to adapt quickly to the EU’s uncompromising global challenges. The 114-page government review presents a bleak picture for the next decade.