Foreign policy received little mention during Britain’s long election campaign, but the surprise victory of David Cameron’s Conservative Party portends lasting significance for the country’s role in the world.
Why this is so lies in the future of two unions—the European Union and the United Kingdom itself.
Cameron’s return to No. 10 Downing Street has increased the odds that the U.K. could leave the EU, and the landslide victory of the Scottish National Party in Scotland, SNP, means the chances the U.K. itself could break up have also risen. A country that leaves one of the world’s major economic blocs and cannot hold itself together is not one that will continue to carry the same weight in the world.
The Conservatives went into the election promising to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU and then hold a referendum on continuing membership by the end of 2017.
Cameron has said that if he gets the changes he wants to the EU, especially tightening freedom of movement and the ability of people from other countries to claim welfare benefits in Britain, he will campaign for a vote to stay in.
