How Britain broke the world - Arthur H. Snell

'Engrossing and frankly deeply troubling' - The Bookseller
'I cannot recommend this book highly enough' - Monocle
'One of the most engaging and original analyses I've read of events of the last quarter century' - Shakespeare & Co, Paris
'Buy this book' - John Sweeney, journalist

The world in the 2020s...

• Russia has invaded Ukraine.
• China threatens Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
• Endless war in the Middle East sends waves of migrants and terrorists around the world.
• And the biggest nations on Earth cannot agree on effective action to stop global heating.

Instead of being a global force for good and actively preventing some of these problems, Britain has all too often fostered instability and division, former British diplomat Arthur Snell argues in this pithy and panoramic book. In fact, the UK's careless 'humanitarian' interventions, grandiosity and greed have helped to fracture the global order built after World War II.

How Britain Broke the World critically assesses UK foreign policy over the past 25 years, from Kosovo in 1998 to Afghanistan in 2021, while also scrutinising British policy towards the powerhouses of the USA, Russia, India, and China.

Far from being unimportant, Snell says, Britain has often played a pivotal role in world affairs, for instance, by supplying the false intelligence that justified the Allied invasion of Iraq and by plugging Russia's corrupt elite into Western economies. Without the UK's marginal but key role, the author argues, wars probably would not have blighted the Balkans, Iraq, and Libya, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved - and the world would be a safer place in the 2020s.

Taking in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Snell charts the key political, economic and geographic factors that drive the behaviour of the most powerful and populous countries.

Like a diplomatic version of Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall, How Britain Broke the World reveals the ignominious reality of UK foreign policy and the true state of world affairs. It is a must-read for anyone interested in Britain's role in international affairs.

About the Author
After graduating from Oxford with a first-class degree in history, Arthur Snell joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
A fluent Arabic speaker, he served in Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Yemen, and Iraq.
He headed the international strand of the UK Government's Prevent counterterrorism programme.
He is currently a geopolitical consultant and host of the hit podcast Doomsday Watch.

Review
'In this engrossing and frankly deeply troubling book, former senior British diplomat Snell explains how Britain's often incompetent, inconsistent and sometimes downright greedy foreign policy has played a pivotal role in rendering the world a more dangerous place. Not only in regard to Russia, where successive British governments have helped to plug Putin's oligarchy into the Western economic system, but also when it comes to the wars in Kosovo, Iraq, Libya and more' - The Bookseller's Caroline Sanderson, awarding an 'Editor's Choice' for Non-fiction

'Diplomats are masters of urbane double-talk, so it is refreshing to find a former Foreign Office mandarin issuing a trenchant indictment of Britain's deplorable geopolitical performance over the last twenty-five years.' - Literary Review

'With insight that comes from years of front-line diplomacy, he shows that the UK has helped fracture the global order and undermined trust around the world the directness of Snell's book is refreshing, and its indictments land harder because it is a view from the inside.' - New Statesman

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