Beyond Brexit, foreign policy missing from UK election

BORIS Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn held on Tuesday night their first television debate of the general election. What was striking, as has been true across the campaign so far, is a lack of substantive discussion of UK foreign policy, beyond Brexit.

This underlines that, while a ginormous amount of attention in recent years has focused on the implications of the United Kingdom's potential departure from the European Union (EU), comparatively little time has been spent on broader UK international policy. Indeed, the last time that the nation systematically reviewed its place in the world, beyond Europe, was 2015 with the-then National Security Strategy exercise and Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Almost a half-decade on, with the UK potentially on the cusp of leaving the Brussels-based club, a new foreign policy review is as urgent as it is necessary. And this is especially so given the scant attention paid to international issues in this year's general election campaign.