Donald Trump is listening to his generals – and that’s great news for Britain

‘Great Britain has lost an Empire and not yet found a role’. Fifty-five years on, Dean Acheson’s remark has not lost its sting. British statecraft is, even now, an attempt to lay claim to a place in the post-imperial world. The events of the past few months — Brexit, the election of the most unlikely US president in history and the debate over the Union — all raise the issue of what kind of country Britain hopes to be.

The chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in Syria last week has prompted the first foreign policy crisis of this new era. Britain’s role in the response has become a proxy for the wider debate about our global standing. In just a couple of days Downing Street moved from saying ‘no one is talking about military action’ to backing Trump’s retaliatory strikes. Then Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, cancelled his trip to Moscow so as to leave the way clear for Rex Tillerson, his American counterpart.