The British Government recently released its long-awaited and highly-anticipated Integrated Review. The review sets out the government’s vision for a 'Global Britain', as well as the UK’s international role following its withdrawal from the European Union. It conveys that, for a country that has lost both its empire and its closest continental partner, it has finally found its place in the international system. Although no longer a superpower, the UK remains a significant player within the global arena, with an internal security architecture that maintains a global reach.

To navigate the increasingly complex and polarised global order, the British Government sets out four overarching trends that will be of particular significance to that order and how the UK travels through it. The four perceived trends – increased geopolitical and geo-economic risks, systematic competition, rapid technological shifts and trans-national challenges – underpin a general recognition of the UK’s middle-power status: the need to be competitive where it should be, collaborative where it can be, and adversarial where it must be.

Key points:

• The British Government’s Integrated Review signals the most significant shift in the country’s strategic outlook since the end of the Cold War.
• The review re-affirmed the Government’s intention to 'tilt' to the Indo-Pacific, with the primary objective of becoming 'the European partner with the broadest and most integrated presence in the Indo-Pacific'.
• The Review looks beyond the traditional scope of security by encompassing issues such as climate change, soft-power and technological innovation being cast as some of its key pillars.
• It re-commits the UK to working co-operatively in bilateral and multilateral settings with other countries and organisations on issues salient to the region.