She also seems to be addicted to the fervour of Cold War.
Her address on Wednesday night in London bordered on showing desire for war against Russia and China simultaneously. By first calling to "push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine," Truss described the conflict as "our war," then proceeded to turn to China and taunt Beijing that its rise "was not inevitable." demanding that they "play by the rules" and even arguing that NATO should defend Taiwan in a potential contingency. Truss once again called for a "a network of liberty" and urged to avoid economic dependencies on undesirable countries (again a reference to Russia and China).
But, unfortunately for Truss and despite the climate we now exist in, none of this huffed-up rhetoric has any serious basis in reality. Yet, if she gets her way, the potential dangers are existential: The British Foreign Secretary's rhetoric is spoiling for direct conflict not just against one but two nuclear superpower adversaries. To try and oust Russia from Crimea and to prevent China from taking Taiwan if it moves to do so are both scenarios which could result in a military response, potentially even a nuclear one. This doesn't seem to faze Truss, and European leaders will probably not be happy with this, even if her masters in Washington will be delighted to hear it. However, it ultimately speaks to a wider truth that the hubris and nostalgic vigour of Brexit is driving Britain off a cliff edge, deposing its foreign policy of any kind of reason, restraint, moderation or realism about its current place in the world.
The story of Britain's foreign policy since 1945 might be summarized as that of a declining Empire going through stages of grief. If the Suez Crisis represented anger and denial, then Britain's bid to join the European Economic Community in the 1970s represented bargaining and acceptance. Yet, it didn't last. Britain's Anglophone exceptionalist identity, compounded of course by the geographic conditioning of separation from mainland Europe, produced a very different historical experience from that of its neighbours. While France and Germany have recent memories of widespread devastation from centuries of wars, Britain, unscathed and undefeated, sees its history as that of triumph and lacks the pragmatism of its counterparts.
As a result, the British Empire faded away as opposed to facing a "reckoning" of sorts, meaning British public opinion was never "reset" and continues to believe it was a force for good, allowing the political right to continue to iconize it, and it is precisely this nostalgia of Imperialism which has manifested itself in the form of Brexit amongst many in the Conservative Party. Given in reality that Brexit itself has brought no economic benefits whatsoever, the Johnson government has sought to compensate for this by doubling down on nationalistic rhetoric and the euphoria of "Britannia rules the waves". The slogan of "Global Britain" is essentially a code word for Empire, the connotation of a country aloof from the internal squabbling of European politics that instead pursues ambitious trade ventures all over the world and seeks to militarily dominate all in the name of moral and ideological exceptionalism.
It should be no surprise that this rhetoric is getting worse as the UK economic environment deteriorates. Inflation is at a 30-year high, energy prices are out of control, Covid-19 has scuppered the economy and, worse still, Boris's own government is deeply unpopular after being rocked by an ever-recurring series of scandals, and is looking for whatever distractions it can muster. Against this backdrop, and with the conflict in Ukraine, is it really surprising that Liz Truss is being allowed to thunderously call for Cold War and, potentially, even a hot one? This is not a manifestation of Britain's strength, as dangerous as these comments may be, but a display of Britain's weaknesses. The current government has nothing else going for it than to appeal to nationalist and Imperialist sentiment by entertaining the possibility of war with other great powers and invoking the historically offensive Opium-wars-style rhetoric against China. But reality of course is different. Truss won't admit it, but the UK needs China as a critical post-Brexit economic partner, and of course we all know there is no chance Russia will be driven out of Ukraine. It seems implausible that despite her position and given not even Boris himself is so staunchly anti-China, that she has the actual influence to singlehandedly achieve her vision.
So, while this rhetoric may be dangerous, it's also empty talk at best from an increasingly unpopular government that wants to create as much noise as possible before the local elections, but that isn't stopping Truss from doing as much damage as possible to Britain's standing in the world as she can in her own aspirations for leadership first. Yet the fact the Foreign Secretary has been reduced to this kind of talk is emblematic of the broader problems Britain is facing, a country whose identity and aspirations are chronically out of touch with reality. It is no longer a projection of triumph, but one of woes.
Timur Fomenko, a political analyst
Reader Comments
The statement "while this rhetoric may be dangerous, it's also empty talk at best..." I'd also suggest is a bit disingenuous - Truss represents the global totalitarians who are currently in a tricky situation, largely of their own making, and could be described as being cornered, which is very dangerous. Unless they have secret weapons they can wheel out and use successfully (biologicals?) in a conflict with China and Russia in a grand-battle of the totalitarians of different streaks, they could end up leading the "west" over a cliff. Which isn't empty talk in my book.
The "average Brit" of the current generation doesn't identify with the age of empire, and the global totalitarians are after totalitarian global control - not an empire. Slightly different things. Totalitarianism uses a lot more psychology often enforced with violence - especially in the early stages, something that would be problematic if the west initiates a conflict with a Russia/China combo.
In the 1930's Hitler even proposed a mutual defense treaty with Britain, which he greatly admired as a fellow-Aryan people ruled by a German royal family, under which treaty Germany would militarily come to the aid of the British Empire if it was attacked anywhere in the world. Churchill and Parliament turned him down. As a result of the two wars against Germany, (really one war with a hiatus in between,) the British Empire was replaced by the American Empire. At conferences of the Allies in WWII, both Stalin and Roosevelt treated Churchill with contempt and blatant rudeness. Examine the photos of the three of them at Yalta - the only one with an unsmiling puss on his face is Churchill. He tried to save the Empire, and instead he destroyed it.
Today, history repeats itself. America is now ruled by a left-wing Communistic class of Neocons and liberal media, which has squandered American cultural capital around the world in just the last 22 years. The peak of good feeling towards America happened right after 9/11, following which, for example, the entire nation of Holland had a minute of silence in memory of the victims - even all the cars on the highways pulled over and the drivers got out and stood before continuing - and in London, the "Star Spangled Banner" was played instead of "God Save The Queen" at the Trooping of the Colors at Buckingham Palace - for the first time in history since 1776.
Today, only 22 years later, America is hated, despised and feared around the world. There is no need to explain why - we all know why. America sees Russia, with its immense resources, and China, with its immense population and industrial power, as rivals which must be defeated at all costs, just as Britain saw Germany a hundred years ago. The American Ship of State will smash itself against the rocks of Russia and China, and destroy itself needlessly and futilely. The American Empire at this stage is doomed.
Let us hope, (probably futilely,) that after the collapse of the American Empire, it manages to accept its reduced status, unlike Britain, which still, 75 years later, is unable to accept its diminished position as a minor power in a small island off the coast of Europe.
These noecons are delusional, but no less bloodthirsty than when they sailed up the Pearl River, leading to capture of over 80 Chinese Ports and the brutality of the Chinese by Global powers in the Boxer Rebellion.
"Best of luck Liz, hope all goes well"
"Wait, what?! You're not willing to gamble your own life on this crazy idea?"
"Oh I see, its only the lives of expendable service men and women that need to go. Got it, my bad, sorry Liz.."