International order transition and the UK’s tilt to the ‘Indo-Pacific’

Abstract This article analyzes the UK government’s response to international order transition as seen through its recent foreign policy ‘tilt’ toward the ‘Indo-Pacific’. It suggests that in post-Brexit Britain the determinants of foreign policy are increasingly complex involving an attempt to balance domestic policy, manage internal party conflict and establish an “independent” position in international relations in the context of US attempts to build a “grand alliance” against China. Our central argument is that the UK policy shift toward the Indo-Pacific is informed in large part by a changing dominant narrative on China and in particular by perceptions of China as “systemic competitor” in the global political economy. We argue that not only is the “tilt” at this point in time based on rather questionable assumptions regarding the UK’s relationship with the ‘region’ but that ‘international order transition’ is more complex than is suggested by the new UK policy orientation. Limited in terms of conventional military power, the UK tilt strategy focuses on effecting institutional and normative change and positions the UK as a ‘soft power superpower’ alongside the United States in the region. In the context of renewed international political and economic crisis the “tilt” expresses the contradictions that lie at the heart of UK foreign policy rather than offering a clearly defined and viable new orientation for “global Britain.”