Redefining Britannia in the 21st Century

AI generated Keir Starmer as a British Imperial Soldier

"The sun never sets on the British Empire” — a phrase once known across the world, and the very reason you are reading this article in English today. The scale and reach of Britain’s empire are almost hard to believe. At its height, it ruled over nearly a quarter of the Earth’s land surface and governed around a fifth of humanity. Britain was the champion of industrialisation, producing a third of the world’s manufactured goods by 1870, with the City of London as the financial capital of the world. Its navy was unrivalled, sailing in all oceans and projecting power across continents. Britannia quite literally ruled the waves.

But no empire lasts forever. The two world wars of the 20th century drained Britain’s resources, tested the limits of its military capabilities, and accelerated the end of its colonial rule. The moral and political foundations of the empire were shaken, as the world no longer accepted imperial dominance over distant colonies. Within half a century, Britain’s vast power had been dismantled. Its land surface shrank dramatically, its naval dominance waned, and by the late 20th century, its domestic laws were largely subordinate to the supranational legislature of Brussels.

For many, this decline was difficult to accept. Surely it was European bureaucracy that had stifled Britain’s greatness. Going from being one of the five selected UN Security Council Members after the Second World War, marking its might on the international stage, to 50 years later being part of a supranational EU that inherently treats its 20-plus members equally, undeniably is an extraordinary transition. 

Only by reclaiming sovereignty could Britain ever recover its long-lost prestige. Brexit was the political expression of that longing: a promise to restore pride, autonomy, and prosperity by breaking free of the supposed chokehold of the European Union. With a narrow margin, the country voted to leave.

But what followed was far from the promised revival. Instead of prosperity, Britain experienced some of its weakest years in living memory. Exports of goods have shrunken by 20% since leaving the EU. Migration rose despite promises of tighter control. GDP is now estimated to be 2–3% lower than it would have been without Brexit.

This is the reality facing a permanent member of the UN Security Council. A nation once at the helm of global affairs, now confronting its limits.

Brexit was, at its heart, a refusal to accept that the world had changed and that Britain no longer commands the power it once did. However, as we move through the 2020s, it appears that British politics is finally coming to terms with this truth. 

The real question now is not how to revive imperial might, but whether Britain can redefine what influence means in the 21st century, and whether the world will respect that.

While any government today knows that reopening the debate on rejoining the European Union would be political suicide, there is also a growing recognition in Westminster that refusing to cooperate with Europe will only deepen Britain’s economic struggles. The UK’s dire trade performance since Brexit has left it little choice but to re-engage. The 2025 UK-EU summit marked a significant step in restoring economic ties, beginning with efforts to align the EU’s emissions trading system with the UK's.

On defence, Britain has also shifted course. The recent pledge to raise military spending to 2.5% of the country's GDP represents the most significant increase since the Cold War. But this is no attempt to rebuild the imperial forces of the past. It is, rather, a pragmatic response to the realities of today’s unstable, multipolar world. While questions remain about how such spending will be funded, the commitment signals a seriousness and pragmatism that have often been missing in recent decades. 

Yet as Britain modernises its hard power, it must not overlook the most valuable asset that it gained from its long-lost empire: soft power. 

The British language has been planted all around the globe, becoming the world's lingua franca. It was able to establish schools and universities across the globe that were modelled on British structures, allowing institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge and LSE to become some of the most prestigious around the world. Common Law and parliamentary democratic systems of governance became the DNA of the countries they once ruled. 

While these tools were built through exploitative and regressive means, they now form the backbone of the UK’s soft power. They promote education, debate, and dialogue, offering Britain a way to lead through ideas rather than force. The UK’s role in hosting recent US–China talks illustrates this quiet strength: a trusted mediator, seen as a force for good in an era of rising tensions. The creation of the Soft Power Council (a committee assigned to assess the country’s soft power) further signals that Westminster understands that soft power is not an optional extra and instead the greatest asset Britain has in shaping the 21st-century world.

As we witness the world evolve around us, with global great powers fighting for greater dominance, the UK presents a unique case of a country that has had to mitigate its slow decline, seeking to regain influence and dignity through renewed means. 

Ultimately, Britain’s future influence will not stem from nostalgia for its empire or isolationist dreams, but from its ability to blend realism with the strengths that history has left it.