London's global influence is dead - only the bluster remains.
© RT.comThis image was generated using AI technology.
There are only two countries in the world that have exercised full autonomy over major political decisions for more than 500 years: Russia and Britain. No others come close. That alone makes Moscow and London natural rivals. But now, we can say with confidence that our historical adversary is no longer what it once was.
Britain is losing its foreign policy clout and has been reduced to what we might call "Singapore on the Atlantic": an island trading power, out of sync with the broader trajectory of world affairs.The fall from global relevance is not without irony. For centuries, Britain caused nothing but harm to the international system. It played France and Germany off one another, betrayed its own allies in Eastern Europe, and exploited its colonies to exhaustion. Even within the European Union, from 1972 until Brexit in 2020, the UK worked tirelessly to undermine the project of integration - first from within, and now from without, with backing from Washington.
Today, the British foreign policy establishment still attempts to sabotage European cohesion, acting as an American proxy.The late historian Edward Carr once mocked the British worldview with a fictional headline:
"Fog in Channel - Continent Cut Off." This egoism, common to island nations, is especially pronounced in Britain, which has always existed beside continental civilization. It borrowed freely from Europe's culture and political ideas, yet always feared them.
That fear was not unfounded.
Britain has long understood that true unification of Europe - especially involving Germany and Russia - would leave it sidelined. Thus, the primary goal of British policy has always been to prevent cooperation between the major continental powers. Even now, no country is more eager than Britain to see the militarization of Germany.
The idea of a stable Russia-Germany alliance has always been a nightmare scenario for London.
Comment: Lessons not learned tend to repeat.