The UK has greater influence in the world than you might expect for a small island nation on the fringe of Europe.
It came second in the Soft Power league table in 2019. This month, as you may have noticed, it is burnishing its credentials in Birmingham. Seventy-two countries are taking part in the 22nd Commonwealth Games, although that includes Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
You may not have noticed, because it didn’t have a show businessy razzmatazz opening ceremony, another important event this month that drew more than 650 participants from 165 countries. The Lambeth Conference was inaugurated in 1867 and convenes about every fifteen years; this is the fifteenth conference. The participants are bishops and archbishops in the Anglican Communion.
The UK has a population of 67 million. Russia has a population of 144 million but is not so good at making friends. It can count on North Korea, Belarus, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Armenia and a slew of ‘Stans. If you are cynical you might say Putin extends his influence militarily but he does have another string to his bow, or should that be another arrow in his quiver?
The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is an economic union initiated by Putin in 2011 that came into force in 2015; the only takers were Armenia, Belarus, Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan. Possible new entrants are Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. If he had played his cards differently he might have altered Russia’s place in the world. He might have made friends with Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic States. He might even have got Russia a place in the Soft Power league table.
“Our age is insistently, at times almost desperately, in pursuit of a concept of world order. Chaos threatens side by side with unprecedented interdependence: in the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the disintegration of states, the impact of environmental depredations, the persistence of genocidal practices, and the spread of new technologies threatening to drive conflict beyond human control or comprehension.” (World Order, Henry Kissinger, Penguin 2014)