Hard Choices

Peter Ricketts has been at the heart of Britain's foreign policy for more than 30 years. He was Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, UK Permanent Representative to NATO, Permanent Secretary in the Foreign Office and Ambassador to France. He has written for the FT, The Times, the New Statesman and Prospect, and regularly appears on Sky News and the BBC. Hard Choices is his first book.

A bracing, stimulating, utterly timely call for the UK to take a very hard look at its place in the world post-Brexit and after Covid. Peter Ricketts tells us we have nothing to lose but our illusions. He's right.

• 0: Introduction 1: Imagining the Post-War Order 2: Managing an Alliance of Unequals 3: Rethinking the Use of Force 4: Picking the Right Threats 5: Reviving the Lost Art of Strategy 6: Finding the Power to Influence 7: Triangle of Tension: Britain, America and China 8: The International System and the Lure of the New 9: Trade, Values and the Mercantilist Trap 10: How Far Offshore? Britain, Europe and the Indo-Pacific Tilt 11: Conclusion