The Gunboat Diplomat: Who am I, what is the blog for?

Welcome to the Gunboat Diplomat blog.

This blog has been set up by a couple of former masters students of international relations, effectively so that we can write for the sake of writing, recording our thoughts and, if anyone is interested, offer an interesting take on current events. We're both British, and so this blog will generally focus on events in relation to the United Kingdom.

Why the Gunboat Diplomat then?

Gunboat Diplomacy represents a form of foreign policy thinking that gains little credence in the foreign policy establishment (sometimes rightfully). On the surface it is the use of military assets (such as gunboats), deployed in a threatening way to influence the political decisions of a government.

Funnily enough, I don't generally condone threatening other countries to get what you want, but more importantly it is a dogma that echoes an age when Britain was bold on the world stage and used its assets to empower itself. Now, I fear British foreign policy is enthralled by rules that are too easily ignored by our opponents and greatly disadvantage ourselves. Although I acknowledge, and am proud of the role Britain has on the world stage, I believe our activities on the world stage are frequently counter to the national interest. 20 years ago it seemed like history really had ended,the liberal world order really seemed to be all-encompassing and inevitable.

But things have changed. China has not embraced liberalism, Russia has returned to the aggressive realpolitik that seems second nature to that hollow power. Both those countries have spread their tentacles across the world, undermining the West at every turn. Now we stringently follow rules that they often do not follow, and increasingly neither do lesser countries that view this increased authoritarianism as a viable alternative to the Western way. Even the behaviour of the United States is of great concern in this new, dangerous, age

We do not promise to have all of the answers, and we do not seek to change the world through this blog. There will be things about which we are wrong, there will be things about which perhaps we don't know the full story. If you disagree with something, or if we do make some form of terrible mistake in our writing, then please do speak up. We do not begin this blog with our understanding of the world a finished product, but as something ever evolving.

I hope we can offer anyone who reads this some useful insight, and independent thought on British foreign policy, security and, defence analysis.