British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cannot be faulted for the sheer scale of his ambitious vision for “Global Britain”, his post-Brexit plan to expand Britain’s international network of alliances to broaden the country’s prosperity and standing on the world stage. The big challenge now is whether Mr Johnson will be able to deliver and really restore Britain’s status as a major world power.
In what has been described as the biggest shake-up in British foreign, defence and security policy since the end of the Cold War more than 30 years ago, this week’s publication of Mr Johnson’s Integrated Review has set a number of exciting, if demanding, targets for Britain’s global realignment.
While consolidating long-standing alliances, such as the transatlantic partnership with the US and Nato, Mr Johnson has also declared his determination for Britain to broaden its horizons further. Deeper engagement with the Indo-Pacific region is likely to be the subject of a major re-orientation in London’s diplomatic outlook.
While Britain is no longer a member of the EU, it remains firmly committed to European security
Indeed, Mr Johnson’s desire to forge closer trade and security ties with the likes of India, Japan and South Korea is reflected in the fact that he will be visiting India at the end of next month, while the first major deployment of the Royal Navy’s new 65,000-tonne Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier will be to the Indo-Pacific region later this year.
The Gulf region, too, figures prominently in Downing Street’s plans to revive Britain’s engagement with long-standing allies, with the government keen to foster closer trade and security ties.
But while the Review sets out a number of ambitious proposals for diplomatic and military expansion, it also has some uncompromising words for countries that are deemed to be hostile to Britain’s long-term interests. Russia, in particular, comes in for severe criticism, which is hardly surprising given that the British government still holds Moscow responsible for carrying out the March 2018 poisoning of a Russian dissident, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia on British soil. According to the 100-page Review, Russia is regarded by Britain as being “the most acute direct threat” to its national well-being, while the threat posed by China is seen more in terms of the challenge it poses to Britain’s long-term economic well-being.
These conclusions have, unsurprisingly, provoked an angry response from both China and Russia. Beijing accused Britain of “toadying” to the US, while an editorial in the Global Times, a Chinese state-owned newspaper, argued that this “immature” policy “originated from London’s fantasy of reviving its past glory as a world superpower”. Russia, meanwhile, denounced Britain’s aggressive tone as a “threat to world peace”.
Britain will prioritise defence investments that counter asymmetric warfare. Getty
Certainly, the seriousness of Mr Johnson’s determination to revive Britain’s standing after Brexit is reflected in his controversial decision to increase the country’s stockpile of nuclear warheads. Even though Mr Johnson’s administration is committed to renewing its Trident nuclear deterrent missile system, in recent years successive British governments have gradually reduced the stockpile of available warheads to around 180. So the announcement that the number of available missiles is now to be raised to 260, a 40 per cent increase, represents a significant change in Britain’s nuclear posture, one that suggests that the deterrent will figure far more prominently in the country’s future defence calculations.
Mr Johnson has openly suggested that Britain could use nuclear weapons against any state that inflicted a devastating attack on it using “emerging technologies” like cyber and artificial intelligence.
Previously, the submarine-launched Trident nuclear missile system was regarded very much as a last resort, only to be used if Britain itself came under a nuclear attack. Known as “ mutually assured destruction”, this policy is a relic of the Cold War, based on the belief that hostile states would be dissuaded from launching nuclear attacks if they understood that they might suffer wholesale devastation in return.
But in an age when new technologies make it possible to cause immense damage to a nation’s well-being by destroying its internet connection or satellite communications, the British government’s fundamental change of attitude towards its nuclear deterrent is simply a reflection of the rapidly changing nature of modern warfare. Indeed, a key element of Mr Johnson’s plan to boost Britain’s global standing is to implement a significant increase in defence spending with the aim of making Britain’s Armed Forces the most powerful and effective in Western Europe.
Investing in new warships such as the two new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers that are shortly to enter service, is seen as sending a clear signal that, while Britain is no longer a member of the EU, it remains firmly committed to European security by providing military capabilities that no other European country can match.
Certainly, at a time when London and Brussels are locked in an unseemly spat over their respective handling of the coronavirus vaccination programme, with EU President Angela Von Der Leyen even suggesting that Brussels might withhold much-needed vaccines from the UK, there has never been a better time for Mr Johnson to demonstrate his commitment to Europe’s security.
After all the acrimony Brexit has caused, Britain, by expanding its military strength, can demonstrate that it still remains committed to defending Europe’s interests.
Fly from Dubai or Abu Dhabi to Chiang Mai in Thailand, via Bangkok, before taking a five-hour bus ride across the Laos border to Huay Xai. The land border crossing at Huay Xai is a well-trodden route, meaning entry is swift, though travellers should be aware of visa requirements for both countries.
Flights from Dubai start at Dh4,000 return with Emirates, while Etihad flights from Abu Dhabi start at Dh2,000. Local buses can be booked in Chiang Mai from around Dh50
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Starring:Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
