Strategy in an era of rising powers: the British dilemma

With the rise of new centres of power, the environment in which British decision-makers attempt to create an effective foreign and defence strategy is undergoing a profound change. Benjamin Zala argues for a three-pronged response. First, finding a way of building a national strategy for a world in which new powers are rising in different ways and at different rates that avoids the conceptual dead ends of a ‘networked' and ‘nonpolar' world. Second, revisiting the debate over the costs and benefits of the US alliance in light of the potential return of major-power alliances for the first time since the Second World War. Third, pursuing a British approach to multilateralism and global-governance reform that reflects the decreasing dominance ofthe West.