‘We’re Not Going to Make That Mistake Again’
With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces bogged down in Ukraine, apparently unable to defeat one of the poorest nations in Europe, and China locking up millions of people in a seemingly never-ending battle to contain COVID-19, the once-ubiquitous idea of inevitable Western decline has suddenly been called into question. Out of nowhere, the free world once again stands for something, and is even showing signs of shaking itself out of its decades-long torpor.
That, at least, is the message Britain wants the United States and its allies to take from the bloody chaos and confusion that characterize global politics today. More than that, Britain wants the West to raise its sights. Forget trying to get Moscow and Beijing to play by the rules of the game; they won’t. Forget the idea that the United Nations and the World Trade Organization are fit for purpose; they aren’t. And forget utopian beliefs about the inevitable progress of democracy; they’re mistaken.
Instead, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told me, the West needs to start fighting back. Truss called for the G7 to be “more institutionalized” and turned into an “economic NATO” that can defend its members from Chinese economic coercion. She also wants NATO itself to become more global in its vision. The West, she said, for so long embarrassed about its history and wealth, should start trusting itself again—and acting like it does.
The message is a striking one from a country that, perhaps more than any other, has over the past few years been paralyzed by its own division, appears to have given London an injection of energy and ambition (or, as its critics might prefer, hubris and self-delusion), a shift that has caught the attention of Moscow and Kyiv, where Britain’s sudden sense of hawkish self-belief has sparked equal measures of opprobrium and delight.
