Melding the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development leaves big issues unanswered
two decades Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been steadily hollowed out, while a separate ministry that hands out aid to poor countries has grown in wealth and stature. As Brexit grinds on and co-operation with thein diplomacy and development dwindles, Boris Johnson wants to reinvigorate the Foreign Office to prepare Britain to stand alone.
Judging by the reaction of an array of aid pundits and former bigwigs in the diplomatic service, the answer to both questions is no. Mr Johnson’s declaration was met with lamentation from all sides, including Conservatives such as David Cameron, his predecessor-but-one as prime minister, and a bevy of Tory former ministers in charge of dispensing aid. One called the decision “mystifying...a quite extraordinary mistake”. Mr Blair said he was “utterly dismayed”.
Mr Johnson may have been thinking more of the many British voters, especially hard-pressed ones from blighted parts of the country, who consider foreign aid an extravagance.
It was nonetheless notable that Mr Johnson ducked any suggestion that he would drop the pledge by Mr Cameron’s government, currently enshrined in law, to spend 0.7% ofon development each year. At last count Britain disbursed more than £14bn in foreign aid, mainly through. The Foreign Office’s core budget has shrunk to £1.1bn. Aid agencies fear that Mr Johnson’s government will try to fiddle the definition of foreign aid in order to hit the 0.7% target.
Getting the balance between hard and soft power is tricky at the best of times. Especially in Africa, where most British aid is disbursed, diplomats involved in conflict resolution have complained that their punch has weakened as-isation of foreign policy”. Rory Stewart, a former minister forwho competed against Mr Johnson to lead the Conservatives last year, has bemoaned the shrinkage of the Foreign Office. “It is no longer staffed or funded to act as a global power,” he says.
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