The world feels extra unsettled than at any level in current a long time. Conflict has returned to Europe. Nice-power rivalry has intensified. Local weather impacts are accelerating quicker than establishments can reply, and progress on ending excessive poverty is stalling. In the meantime, the so-called rules-based worldwide order is underneath higher risk than ever earlier than, and from a few of the very nations that helped set up and police it.
Seen by way of the lens of stabilisation and safety, the UK has been an energetic participant on the world stage lately. On Ukraine, it has proven management and resolve, mobilising diplomatic, army, and monetary assist in response to Russia’s invasion. It has labored to stabilise alliances throughout a turbulent interval in US politics and to handle the geopolitical fallout of fragmenting international commerce, know-how, and safety, however has additionally taken consequential choices to interrupt with the USA, notably over struggle with Iran.
But this exercise has been basically defensive. It has been formed by disaster administration slightly than agenda setting: responding to struggle, shoring up alliances underneath stress, or compensating for shocks generated elsewhere, notably through the Trump administration. These efforts have been essential and, at instances, efficient, however they body international coverage as largely about stopping issues from getting worse.
In his first main international coverage assertion, printed on the day he was nominated to be the following chief of the Labour Social gathering, Andy Burnham argued: “We should rebuild Britain’s laborious energy to face a darker world.” Given all that is happening on this planet, it’s not shocking to see Burnham underline the significance of safety and defence, nevertheless it was additionally reassuring to see him acknowledge the significance of being “guided by our values”. His level is that “Nations work with us not solely due to what we carry to the desk, however as a result of they know what we stand for and what we stand towards.” It’s to that notion that this essay assortment speaks.
Taken collectively, the contributions to this assortment sketch an formidable agenda for worldwide cooperation. There isn’t any doubt that the world is a harmful and unsure place in the mean time. Nonetheless, there’s additionally a possibility to check new concepts and initiatives, to construct the following era of establishments and practices that can ship a extra simply, equal and sustainable world. The essays on this assortment are from a variety of MPs throughout political events, from new consumption backbenchers to former ministers. The insurance policies they suggest are different, however additionally they reply to a typical constellation of things – each threats and alternatives – that demand a rethinking of worldwide cooperation. The essays are usually not exhaustive; for instance, they don’t cowl the deepening worldwide debt disaster, however they do supply a variety of concrete and workable concepts that may assist the incoming prime minister and Cupboard as they navigate the worldwide context.
Simply as it is a second for a reset of the home agenda within the UK, so too would possibly there be an opportunity for the UK to rethink worldwide priorities and lead progress on such important and tangible points as power safety, illicit finance, polluter-pays levies, and wealth taxation.
Navigating the geopolitical context
For all authors, the world feels extra unsettled than at any level in current a long time. There are extra armed conflicts now than at any time for the reason that second world struggle. The good multi-decade challenge of growth and poverty alleviation is stalling within the face of the local weather disaster and a number of power, meals, debt, and well being shocks – and we at the moment are in an period of eye-watering wealth inequality.
Notably, these are now not crises solely affecting marginalised communities or lower-income nations (although after all there’s far much less to cushion impacts for these individuals) however there are actual threats to the livelihoods and futures of residents within the UK.
In opposition to this, the principles, norms, and cooperative frameworks that emerged after the second world struggle, and had been tailored once more after the chilly struggle, are underneath seen pressure. Lots of our authors discuss of a return to an period of nice energy rivalry, characterised by financial domination and coercion. Most disorientating for UK policymakers has been the function of the USA on the worldwide stage lately. As Gareth Thomas writes in his essay, “The US, the ability that underwrote the post-war multilateral order, is now underneath an administration that treats that order with open contempt.” And it’s not simply guidelines and establishments underneath risk. Alongside them is a risk to a few of the core values that established the post-war challenge, not least – as Beccy Cooper writes powerfully – the concerted, organised counter-offensive towards the rights of girls and women.
A center energy, with a historical past that also issues
Mark Carney, the previous Governor of the Financial institution of England and now prime minister of Canada, has helped crystallise the id of the UK on this shifting world order. In his speech to the gathering at Davos in January 2026, he referred to as to fellow “center powers” to chart a brand new path of mutual resilience and coalition constructing. It’s an id willingly adopted by a lot of our authors and appears to sit down effectively with a UK that has lengthy resisted being solely a European energy; a rustic that may now not outline its international coverage by the ‘particular relationship’ with the USA to such a fantastic extent; and the popularity that center powers and their issues span nations throughout the outdated divides of International North and International South.
This isn’t to say that the UK’s historical past doesn’t matter for our id. Our tasks and alternatives are profoundly formed by being a former colonial energy and a key architect of the post-war order, which retains a everlasting seat on the UN Safety Council. Our function within the trendy Commonwealth could now be one among equals, however, as our creator Emily Darlington factors out, the UK has invested probably the most and hosts the secretariat; subsequently, now we have a doubtlessly outsize function in defining the political way forward for this establishment.
Our historical past as part of the EU is current, current sufficient to nonetheless be a stay debate. Though none of our authors is looking for re-joining, it’s additionally clear from Gareth Thomas’s essay that the established order is undesirable. Lastly, we must always not overlook our different id of current historical past, that of an ‘help superpower’. Fleur Anderson rejects the sense of inevitable decline within the growth agenda and requires a rolling ten-year framework with a reputable pathway again in the direction of 0.7% of gross nationwide earnings. Crucially, she argues for an invigorated Division for Improvement and Worldwide Local weather Motion.
Reframing safety
It’s not shocking that senior UK leaders have targeted on easy methods to navigate a harmful world. For instance, David Lammy’s method when he was deputy prime minister and international secretary was grounded in what he referred to as “progressive realism”, a realistic, sober recognition of the boundaries of the UK’s affect in an unsettled and multipolar world. Writing in July 2026, the present international secretary, Yvette Cooper, shares an analogous method, recognising that “the world is extra harmful than it has been for many years” and underlining the necessity to make our “nation safer, our economic system stronger and our individuals safer”.
The authors on this assortment appear to share a unique framing. One that isn’t naïve concerning the world’s issues or the threats to the establishments now we have relied on, however that’s, nevertheless, stubbornly decided that there can nonetheless be a assured, coherent imaginative and prescient of what the UK ought to be for within the subsequent part of worldwide cooperation. Moreover, they write that this imaginative and prescient can supply hope that issues will be higher and that progress stays attainable. That’s very important; with out hope, residents can’t be anticipated to spend money on the kind of civic interplay, political engagement, and financial insurance policies required to see a greater future. Because the saying goes, the arc of historical past is lengthy however bends in the direction of justice. Which may be proper, however the lives of women and men are usually not lived as arcs of historical past. They’re lived within the right here and now. Right here-and-now leaders want to have the ability to present that they will work collectively to ship insurance policies which can be human centred and may supply hope for tomorrow in addition to for future generations.
“Rethinking the UK’s function in a fractured world shouldn’t be a name for retrenchment or scepticism, or to be frightened of our insecure world. It’s a name for renewal”
This sense of states such because the UK needing to work collectively to ship for lives lived immediately comes throughout from a lot of our authors. Beccy Cooper, writing on the rights of girls and women, utterly rejects the concept that gender justice will be placed on the again shelf whereas the laborious problems with safety, financial growth, or geopolitics take centre stage. With out fixed dedication to gender justice, not solely is a era of girls and women being discarded, however the outcomes for all are weaker. Bobby Dean argues for a change in fiscal guidelines in order that investing within the abilities, well being, or schooling of individuals immediately is seen as an funding in resilience and the long-term well being of our economic system simply as a lot as any capital funding in infrastructure. Bayo Alaba, himself a former paratrooper, expertly lays out why UK defence funding can’t be held up towards, and instantly traded for, funding in poverty alleviation, defending human rights, and peacebuilding. Lives lived effectively immediately, with hope, are a lot much less prone to be tomorrow’s safety risk.
Local weather anxiousness and local weather grief are a rising expertise, throughout all generations. It saps hope and is politicised to create dissatisfaction. We can not ignore the local weather emergency. However each Polly Billington and Ellie Chowns argue that this isn’t essentially a message of hardship and sacrifice immediately. As Billington makes clear, geopolitical instability and coercion resulting in power worth shocks imply that this isn’t a selection between a cushty fossil-fuelled future and an insecure world of renewables. No safe power future exists with out renewables, and now could be the time to work collectively to see that come about. As Chowns lays out, that is really a selection between permitting the document income from fossil fuels to proceed, or enacting a variety of polluter-pays taxes to hasten the tip of oil and gasoline and spend money on public items, at house and overseas.
Profiting from this second
There are a number of explanation why the timing of this assortment is important. First, we’re at a time of political shifts within the UK. A brand new prime minister, new ministers and their advisers will likely be in search of credible proposals that may underpin a refreshed worldwide method, concepts which can be critical, deliverable, and politically defensible. This assortment is designed to talk on to this second.
Second, the UK would discover itself in good firm if it appeared to collaborate with different progressive governments on international points. Deputy PM David Lammy represented the UK on the Barcelona Defence of Democracy summit in April 2026. This gathering of progressive political leaders demonstrates rising willingness to chart a brand new narrative in international financial governance, underpinned by some tangible coverage proposals.
It’s removed from the one ‘coalition of the keen’ rising, together with these working collectively to part out fossil fuels, increase solidarity levies on polluting actions, set up an Worldwide Panel on Inequality, and extra.
Lastly, now we have our personal second to guide. The UK will maintain the G20 in 2027 and is anticipated to carry the G7 Presidency in 2028. It is a important alternative for the UK. The G20 stays the one discussion board that brings collectively superior economies and main rising powers on the highest political stage. It’s messy, contested, and imperfect ‒ however it’s indispensable. And its agenda shouldn’t be predetermined. Host governments have actual affect.
The UK will host the G20 following what’s already proving to be a disruptive US presidency, wherein most of the progressive initiatives which were sidelined and nearly the entire stakeholder engagement has been stopped. That context heightens each the chance of fragmentation and the necessity for credible management from different nations dedicated to cooperation.
Lots of our authors contribute sharp, deliverable coverage concepts for a UK-hosted G20 to take ahead. For instance, Liam Byrne proposes that the UK use its G20 presidency to revisit and progress the difficulty of designing a wealth tax that truly works and helps rework home useful resource mobilisation in nations each wealthy and poor. Joe Powell raises the bar on what will be achieved on illicit monetary flows.
That is the time, he writes, to lastly require transparency from the UK’s personal Crown Dependencies and Abroad Territories, in addition to a deal with property, to anonymous-owned properties in our cities, tax haven secrecy, and a world of “skilled enablers”. Polly Billington outlines a three-point G20 plan to ship focused assist to assist households and communities cut back power demand and entry cleaner power; funding in grid infrastructure and distribution to unleash the revolution in renewables and electrification; and scaled-up finance for probably the most susceptible nations.
Every proposal is framed with Whitehall and Westminster in thoughts: clear strains of accountability, real looking timeframes, and routes to internationalisation by way of the G20 and different boards.
It is usually value noting {that a} deal with worldwide coverage and coalitions to drive change shouldn’t be inconsistent with a drive for localism and radical devolution. Arguably, the system of multilateralism, which was solely the protect of nation states, is over. ‘Nationwide curiosity’ was at all times the curiosity of the ruling elite in anyone nation. A contemporary international coverage should take extra critically the negotiated nationwide curiosity that takes place in democratic and multicultural societies, and decentralise its worldwide relations. As Gareth Thomas writes in his essay, the UK would do effectively – with its main cities and distinct nations and internationally famend universities – to advertise a extra networked and agile method, a “multilateralism from beneath”.
Rethinking, not retreating
The title of this assortment issues. Rethinking the UK’s function in a fractured world shouldn’t be a name for retrenchment or scepticism, or to be frightened of our insecure world. It’s a name for renewal.
It argues {that a} extra formidable and principled UK method to international cooperation is each essential and attainable. It means transferring past defensive internationalism in the direction of a clearer sense of path. It means utilizing moments just like the G20 presidency not as ceremonial milestones, however as levers for reform. And it means backing values with coverage, turning commitments into motion.
This assortment is a part of a wider programme of labor on the New Economics Basis that examines the way forward for international financial cooperation. As fractured because the world could seem in the mean time, we’re additionally witnessing the emergence of recent concepts, new initiatives, and new norms. These essays spotlight examples, such because the efforts on the G20 to create a tax on the super-rich and the International Solidarity Levies Job Drive. At NEF, we’re additionally excited by the emergence of quite a few different initiatives, together with the Debtors’ Membership of extremely indebted nations to work collectively to push again on predatory behaviour by collectors and the proposal for an Worldwide Panel on Inequality that will set up a trusted, scientific framework for designing coverage to deal with inequality.
Amid all of the uncertainty and disruption of the present context, these ‘coalitions of the doing’ are working to make progress on points the place lowest widespread denominator multilateral motion can not. This assortment, alongside a collection of convenings within the UK and globally, is a part of this effort to nurture new and higher types of financial cooperation.
At a time when international cooperation is underneath pressure, the UK has a selection: to aim to shore up the outdated or to assist form the longer term by way of management in addition to strategic followership. The essays that comply with are provided within the perception that the second path is each extra demanding ‒ and extra worthwhile.
Picture: Overseas, Commonwealth and Improvement Workplace Flickr
