Suchergebnisse

The article addresses the features of the «migration crisis» in Britain, the signs of which began manifesting itself almost as soon the country had left the EU in 2020. It is exactly the reduction of net migration that could, as the Brexiters hoped, score some points, in the eyes of the public and politically, that the withdrawal from the EU brought about positive changes due to the cessation of participation in the European Single market. In fact, one of the keynote campaign slogans – «take back control» – was never implemented, having morphed into the task of «stop the boats». The unprecedented increase in the number of illegal migrants was provoked both by imperfect asylum policies, unprepared for new challenges, and by legal gaps in the cooperation with the EU in terms of readmission and combating human trafficking. The author examines the government's response to the «migration crisis» in two aspects. Firstly, the article looks into the changes the governments led by Johnson and Sunak, respectively, proposed to the migration legislation. An increasingly harder line on the asylum rules has become a trigger for public debate and internal party struggle, but also for legal proceedings. Secondly, the migration issue has become an important item on the international agenda of London. The government's attempts to find reliable and legally defensible mechanisms for the removal of irregular migrants, including agreements with Rwanda to resettle asylum seekers, come into conflict with new political and legal arrangements with the EU and international humanitarian law, and adversely affect Britain's image as a responsible international actor. It is concluded that the fight against illegal migration has become a top priority of socio-political discussions and the most important task for the Conservative Party ahead of the 2024 general elections.

The article outlines the special features of the UK foreign policy described as an outcome of the request for a new international role after the withdrawal from the EU. Proceeding from the theory of rational choice, the author concludes that the UK uses relations with Washington to adapt the idea of "Global Britain" to the changes in the international environment, taking into account the reduction of its own weight in international politics. It is highlighted that the synchronization of the UK and the US international agendas is taking place against the backdrop of deteriorated UK-EU relations. Atlanticism, along with disengagement from the EU, became the ideological basis of a new British foreign policy aimed at ensuring Western unity, while increasing its fragmentation. The significance of the new Atlantic Charter and the military-political alliance AUKUS for the foreign strategy of the UK is assessed. Despite the global nature of the articulated goals, the United Kingdom operates in the logic of a middle power in the face of intense international competition. It is concluded that the special emphasis on "hard" power and the strengthening of military-political alliances based on liberal values does not solve the strategic dilemmas of Britain, which will still have to balance between the major international actors.

The 2016 UK EU membership referendum has been a catalyst for a stronger political dialogue between Turkey and Britain. The countries have taken a firm line of strategic partnership which meets the interests of both parties to strengthen their international positions. In late December 2020, the parties managed to forge a trade agreement envisaging most of the previously established rules. At the same time, a full-scale trade agreement is hampered by Ankara's obligations within the EU Customs Union and Preferential agreements. Turkey occupies an important place in the new foreign strategy of the UK. London considers Ankara, which is pursuing an increasingly tough policy in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Black Sea region, as a situational ally in strengthening its international positions weakened by Brexit. The author notes that the declared strategic partnership in the political sphere has a number of limitations associated with the conflict potential of relations between Turkey and the European Union, as well as the growing importance of the values factor in British foreign policy. The UK actually needs to find a balance between other international players in the Brussels-London-Ankara triangle for its own geopolitical and economic goals. The nature of British-Turkish relations is of considerable interest to Russia.

The article explores the interconnection between the discourse over national identity and attempts by the UK authorities to design new foreign policy priorities in a post-Brexit environment. Proceeding from the book of the British historian D. Reynolds ―Island Stories: Britain and Its History in the Age of Brexit‖, the author highlights debates about the UK's position on the international stage using different methodological approaches to international relations such as the role theory. Moreover, the article contributes to the constructivist discourse that interstate relations are defined by a set of norms, values and identity. The author analyses international narratives of the ―Anglosphere‖, ―free trade‖ and ―European question‖. It is concluded that there is a certain historic continuity which manifests itself in all the discussions over the UK objectives on the global stage. The re-design of the UK international strategy and its search for new priorities as a result of Brexit and global shifts in the international system are driven by attempts to identify a new global role through the alliance-based approach in the Euro-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific regions. The article concludes that the search in the UK of a new international identity deeply rooted in British history now comes to the fore, as the idea of Global Britain is being fit into real life.

In 2020 the number of illegal small boat Channel-crossings to the UK drastically increased (nearly 7000 registered cases). This sparked sharp discussions on measures of countering illegal migration, border control and improvement of asylum policy. The phenomenon of illegal Channel-crossing is related to a wider spectrum of problems beyond international protection and rescue operations, border management and countering international crime (human smuggling and trafficking). The UK withdrawal from the European asylum system after the transition period poses a major challenge. The author argues that the UK's ambition is to have access to the asylum seekers return procedures stipulated in the Dublin regulation along with strengthening bilateral border control and policing cooperation with the EU member-states. The British authorities are considering different scenarios of bolstering border control including Royal Navy deployment to stop migrant boats. In the meantime, the authorities tend to overstate the problem of illegal migration in order to channel public opinion into the framework of the «take back control of national border» discourse and to put pressure on the EU. The top priority now for Britain is to conclude a Readmission agreement with the European Union.