Strategy for the FCO
35. On 2 December 2003, the Foreign Office published
a White Paper entitled UK International Priorities: A Strategy
for the FCO.[50]
This document represents a considerable watershed in many respects
for the Foreign Office and, indeed, for the world of international
diplomacy. For the first time, the FCO has produced a single document
that aims to set out clearly and comprehensively its, "policy,
public service and organisational priorities," for the next
ten years.[51] It describes,
in an informative and highly readable manner, how the FCO works
at present, the resources it has to draw upon and the challenges
the United Kingdom will face in the coming years, such as environmental
change, insecurity of energy supplies and global terrorism. It
states that the country's key relationships will be with the USA—"the
world's single superpower"—and the EU.[52]
The Commonwealth will also remain a, "valuable informal group
for the promotion of common values and interests across the world."[53]
36. Sir Peter Marshall KCMG CVO, a former diplomat,
submitted a very useful memorandum to us on the Strategy document.[54]
He noted that it rested on four basic propositions:
i. there is an increasing overlap between
external and internal affairs (for example, on issues such as
migration and asylum);
ii. globalisation (not only in economic terms,
but with respect to phenomena such as terrorism and weapons proliferation)
means that foreign affairs will increasingly matter more than
ever before in national concerns and priorities;
iii. no government can act alone in international
affairs, no matter how powerful it is; it will always have to
co-operate and act in alliance with others to achieve its ends;
and
iv. international affairs are no longer—if
they ever were—the sole preserve of governments, with a
wide range of non-governmental "actors" taking a key
role in foreign affairs.[55]
Based on these assumptions and preconditions, the
Strategy sets out the United Kingdom's eight foreign policy
priorities for the next five to ten years, which are set out in
the box below (figure 2).
Figure 2
