The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) should be scrapped and replaced with a new Department for International Affairs to modernise a “somewhat elitist” institution “rooted in the past”, a new report argues.
The recommendation comes from a group of former Whitehall officials and diplomats, including ex-cabinet secretary Lord Sedwill, who said the department “all too often operates like a giant private office for the foreign secretary of the day” and instead needed to deliver on the UK’s long-term objectives.
The group also called for the “physical surroundings” of the grand Victorian building to be changed, “perhaps with fewer colonial-era pictures on the walls”, saying changes “might help create a more open working culture and send a clear signal about Britain’s future”.
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The World In 2040: Renewing The UK’s Approach To International Affairs was written after the group, which also includes former Number 10 adviser Tom Fletcher and former director general at the Foreign Office Moazzam Malik, met in Oxford to debate a change in approach.
They said the UK “should not always see ourselves as the leader in efforts to tackle global challenges” and be more of a “team player”, as “effective solutions to global problems in a multi-polar world need a wider array of leaders”.
The report said: “As we move towards 2040 and beyond, the UK will not be able to rely on just its traditional alliances with the US and Europe to defend interests in the same way.
“Globally, economic and geopolitical power will be more diffuse as regionally strong countries – ‘middle powers’ – exert greater influence over international affairs.
“This does not mean that the UK will retreat from existing alliances, but we will need to build new issue-based alliances with states whose interests and values may be less closely aligned.”
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It called for the department to take a similar route to its equivalents in Canada and Australia, taking on climate change and trade briefs, as well as more traditional aid and diplomacy missions, and for a 1% of gross national income target to be set for international engagement, sitting alongside the UK’s pledge for 2% of GDP to be spent on defence.
And it said parliament should set “core objectives and mandates” that “endure beyond the tenure of individual ministers”, with the current set up “struggling to deliver a clear mandate, prioritisation and resource allocation”.
“The UK has often sought to project an image of ‘greatness’ to the world that today seems anachronistic,” the report says. “We will be envied for what we are good at, not what we say that we are good at.
“This means the state working hand-in-hand with our universities, our creative sector, our sports bodies, news and civil society organisations, so they can serve as effective ambassadors for the UK and maximise the country’s considerable ‘soft power’.”
The report also claimed that while the merging of the Foreign Office and Department for International Development back in 2020 had been “presented as an opportunity to leverage the strengths of both departments” it had “struggled to deliver”, adding: “A more effective approach requires a sustained focus on the international challenges that will shape the UK’s prosperity and security.”
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It added: “Regaining a sense of confidence requires a greater self-awareness of our position as an ‘off-shore’ nation.
“As a mid-sized power outside the European Union, there is potentially much to learn from countries like Norway, Canada, Switzerland and Japan who are able to use their size and independence to leverage significant influence on the world stage.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are maximising the benefits of merging diplomacy and development in the FCDO to better deal with global challenges, as seen in our responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in the Middle East.
“We are committed to having an even greater impact and influence on the world stage – which is why we recently completed a review across the department to ensure we are effectively directing our funds, streamlining all our international policy work, and building our capability for the future.”
