Diego Garcia and Britain’s Virtue Imperialism

 

"Systemic competition: the intensification of competition between states and with non-state actors, manifested in: a growing contest over international rules and norms; the formation of competing geopolitical and economic blocs of influence and values that cut across our security, economy and the institutions that underpin our way of life; the deliberate targeting of the vulnerabilities within democratic systems by authoritarian states and malign actors; and the testing of the boundary between war and peace, as states use a growing range of instruments to undermine and coerce others”.

“Global Britain in a Competitive Age”, Her Majesty’s Government 2021

September 26^th, 2023. Britain’s virtue imperialism is a declaratory end unsupported by either means nor ways in the hope that the world will follow where London dares to tread precisely because in so doing Britain is prepared to sacrifice its own vital interests. Virtue imperialism is also strategically and geopolitically perverse because even if the British could achieve its stated goal, such as resolving climate change, Britain’s contribution would be next to zero. Or is that Net Zero.  Virtue imperialism is driven by historic guilt and is the last vestige of British imperialism.  Guilt is also the main driver of British foreign and security policy these days at the upper levels of Britain’s political and bureaucratic establishment.  Guilt in Whitehall about who the British are and who the British once were. 

Virtue imperialism is the only way to explain London’s decision to negotiate with Chinese-aligned Mauritius to hand over sovereignty of the strategically vital island Diego Garcia some 2152 kilometres distant. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that any such transfer of the Chagos Archipelago, which contains Diego Garcia, as a “colossal mistake”. He is right.  Diego Garcia may be a tiny speck of an island in the Indian Ocean, but it also hosts the most strategically important US air and logistics base in the Indian Ocean.  The FCDO response has been to issue the usual bromide that no decision is imminent and in any case were Diego Garcia to be handed to the Mauritians the American base would not be threatened.  Really? There can be little doubt the Chinese are pushing Mauritius to claim Diego Garcia and that China would love to turn Diego Garcia into another of its ever-extending ‘string of pearls’ island fortresses. The depth of the Sino-Mauritius relationship is evident in the 47 official Chinese development finance projects on the island.  

The Integrated Review Refresh 2023 was sub-titled “Responding to a more contested and volatile world”.  The problem is that much of Whitehall, with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to the fore, simply does not want to respond, let alone contest anything.  For the FCDO and their ‘right-on’ fellow travellers if Britain should lead at all it should be through virtue.  Not only is no-one else listening, by placing values before interests Britain’s elite are both undermining core British security interests, and threatening to undermine those of key allies, most notably the United States.  By agreeing the very principle of a Mauritian claim over Diego Garcia they are also putting at risk other British Overseas Territories. For example, there are strikingly similar historical parallels between the claim by Mauritius for Diego Garcia (2152 km shortest distance) and the Argentine claim on the Falkland Islands (393 km shortest distance). Precedent matters in the sovereignty game!

After a ten-year (China-backed?) campaign by Mauritius London finally agreed last November to open negotiations.  It is hardly surprising given that the Sunak Government is fast becoming the leitmotif for value imperialism with short-term politics presented as long-term strategy.  Britain’s acquiescence to talks is at the least bizarre given that the claim by Mauritius is dubious at best. When in 1810 the British seized Diego Garcia from the French there were no permanent settlements on Mauritius and there had never been.  The country of Mauritius simply did not exist. Rather, the Chagos Archipelago was simply a part of the British colony of Mauritius for administrative convenience. If there is any legitimate grievance it is on the part of the descendants of those who were living on Diego Garcia at the time the joint UK/US air base was established between 1968 and 1973 and who were forcibly expelled.

Unfortunately, the fact that London is even talking to Mauritius about Diego Garcia fits a wider pattern of contemporary British foreign policy – virtue imperialism. The Oxford Concise Dictionary defines ‘imperialism’ as “acquiring colonies and dependencies, or extending a country’s influence through trade, diplomacy, etc”.  Thankfully, the age of Britain seeking to acquire territories is over, but not so China. The Integrated Review 2021 implied this when it described “Global Britain in a Competitive Age”. Again, not only does Whitehall reject ‘Global Britain’ it seems to be doing everything in its power NOT to compete in what is a self-evidently geopolitically competitive age.  It is as though those responsible do not think Britain has a right to preserve its legitimate critical interests necessary. 

This tendency has been all too evident in the Net Zero debate. Few would deny there is a climate change challenge we all need to address, even if it is clouded in climate hysteria in Britain.  However, Whitehall has taken the view that Britain must be at the forefront of efforts to cut carbon emissions even if the very process further impoverishes Britons.  The only reason that such a ‘strategy’ (it is in fact the antithesis of strategy) is entertained by Britain’s not-so-great and good is that it makes them feel better about themselves. The only reason they believe the rest of the world will listen (as opposed to laugh) is the arrogance of the virtue imperialist.

Britain’s retreat from realism as a retreat from reality and it is time Britain got over its past. Most of us do not feel any guilt about Britain’s past, far from it, and in any case that was then, and this is now.  We really do live in a strategically competitive age, and it is high time Britain once again competed rather than kow-towed because if the likes of Britain do not compete strategically freedom will in time be lost.  Thank the Republic of Mauritius for its interest in Diego Garcia and bid them a good day. 

It is time to toughen up, London! Diego Garcia must stay British!

Julian Lindley-French