Op-ed: "Together, we are stronger!"

This is an opinion piece written by an external contributor. The views expressed are the author's own.

Of Churchill's three majestic circles of British foreign policy, we put all our eggs in one basket (the Anglo-American Alliance), turning our back first on the Commonwealth and then on Europe at our peril, leaving both for interest groups to wheel out when convenient, often just as straw men to be hailed or pilloried.

If Trump's speech this evening is what I hear (and fear) it will be, we must undertake the most surefooted reorientation towards our Commonwealth and European families, as strongly as we can, as soon as we can.

Out with the false narrative that one must choose between the Commonwealth and Europe: let these lies rot in the dustbin of history. In with the recognition - true all along - that the Commonwealth and Europe aren't mutually exclusive, but mutually reinforcing and beneficial.

Each needs the other; each complements the other; each can only be strengthened with a wide-ranging and meaningful partnership with the other.

Together, we are stronger, and there is no country in the world better placed to strengthening these interlinkages than the UK.

We aren't a nation that has lost an empire and has yet to find a role, as Acheson might have asserted.

We have always had a role: it has been right there before us all along, but we were too busy looking the other way or running away from it. Never again, I would hope. 

The UK must serve once again as the beating heart of our three families of belonging, fully committed to the Commonwealth, fully committed to Europe, and fully committed to the US even as it goes through its crisis of conscience.

We must remember our role in this world is not authored by the US or contingent upon it, as much as our destinies might be intertwined.

While we must remain the truest and most steadfast friend to the US, we must rise to the occasion and take charge of building and reviving coalitions bound together by the highest ideals that unite us.

It is the strength of our alliances built on shared values, alongside our national commitments to boosting hard power capabilities, that shall give us an asymmetrical advantage over our adversaries.

As we sail through choppy waters that have shaken us to our core, I take a little comfort that a leader seems to be emerging - both in a person and in a nation - that could steer the ship to a more stable course, potentially even ushering in a braver and better new world if we survive the storm.

As we build a new coalition of the willing, let us harness the power of existing and converging networks; while the most urgent contributions might relate to hard power, we would do well not to overlook the need also for collective declarations of commitment to shared values by a wider global community.

Together, we are stronger