How Britain Broke the World

"Engrossing and frankly deeply troubling" - The Bookseller

"I cannot recommend this book highly enough" - Monocle

"One of the most engaging and original analyses I’ve read of events of the last quarter century” - Shakespeare & Co

"Buy this book" - John Sweeney, journalist

Turmoil in the 2020s.

• Russia has invaded Ukraine.
• China threatens Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
• Endless war in the Middle East sends waves of migrants and terrorists around the world.
• And the biggest nations on Earth cannot agree effective action to stop global heating.

Instead of being a global force for good and actively preventing some of these problems, Britain has all too often fostered instability and division. In fact, the UK’s careless ‘humanitarian’ interventions, grandiosity and greed have helped to fracture the global order built after World War II, argues former British diplomat Arthur Snell in this pithy book.

Why is the world so dangerous now?

How Britain Broke the World critically assesses UK foreign policy over the past 25 years, from Kosovo in 1998 to Afghanistan in 2021, while also scrutinising British policy towards the powerhouses of the USA, Russia, India, and China.

Far from being unimportant, Snell reveals, Britain has often played a pivotal role in world affairs, for instance, by supplying the false intelligence that justified the Allied invasion of Iraq and and by plugging Russia’s corrupt elite into Western economies.

Then come the bungled humanitarian interventions in foreign states.

Without the UK’s marginal but key role, the author argues, it’s likely that wars would not have blighted the Balkans, Iraq, and Libya, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved, and the world would be a safer place in the 2020s.

Taking in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Snell charts the key political, economic and geographic factors that drive the behaviour of the most powerful and populous countries.

Like a diplomatic version of Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall, How Britain Broke the World reveals the ignominious reality of UK foreign policy and the true state of world affairs. It is a must-read for anyone interested in Britain's role in international affairs.

Review

‘In this engrossing and frankly deeply troubling book, former senior British diplomat Snell explains how Britain’s often incompetent, inconsistent and sometimes downright greedy...read more...