Just over 20 years ago the foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, declared that Britain should aim to "punch above its weight in the world". Today the country seems reluctant even to enter the ring. A recently retired British nato chief, speaking of Russia and Ukraine, has complained that the prime minister, David Cameron, has become a "foreign-policy irrelevance". America despairs of Britain's shrinking armed forces and criticises its "constant accommodation" of China. Allies are worried, opponents scornful.
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