UK foreign office is ‘elitist and rooted in past’, report says

LONDON: A new report is calling for colonial-era paintings in the foreign office’s Whitehall headquarters to be removed and for the department’s name to be changed from what it describes as “somewhat elitist and rooted in the past”.
A group of former diplomats, ministers, national security advisers, and senior officials have written the report, “The World in 2040: Renewing the UK’s Approach to International Affairs”, in collaboration with the UCL Policy Lab and Hertford College, Oxford.It was not commissioned by the UK govt.
“The very name of the Foreign, Commonwealth (formerly ‘Colonial’) and Development Office (FCDO) is anchored in the past,” the report states. “A new Department for International Affairs (or Global Affairs UK) would signal a potentially quite different role. Former colonies are making increasingly vocal demands around the need for reparations from colonialism and compensation for damage arising from historical industrial emissions. UK has often sought to project an image of ‘greatness’ to the world that today seems anachronistic. We should give space, be more of a ‘team-player’, showing humility and respect,” it states.

Britain will no longer be able to rely on its traditional alliances with the US and Europe and, instead, the countries in the G20 should be a core focus, it says, since UK will “have to share rights in multilateral institutions with emerging powers” now that the world’s economic gravity is moving back towards the East driven by growth in China, India and Southeast Asia.
“Today, the UK is undoubtedly less politically and economically influential than in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. This trend is likely to continue,” it says. “Western values and dominance of the international order are being challenged by countries with differing political and value systems.”
The report describes the UK as “an ‘offshore’ mid-sized power.” While in the past the UK compared itself to France and Germany, its future has more in common with Japan, Canada, Norway and Switzerland, it states.
Downing Street has rejected the report with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying he did not agree the FCDO was “elitist”, nor that colonial-era paintings should be removed, and that he was proud of the UK’s history.
An FCDO spokesperson said: “We are committed to having an even greater impact and influence on the world stage.”