What Happened in the Previous Future?

A little late in the day, the British are beginning to ask the question: What kind of grand strategy will the UK adopt and what kind of alliances will it make when the country leaves the European Union next year? That question was never placed clearly on the national agenda during the Brexit battle because most of those professionally interested in such topics didn’t want alternatives to a European future to be discussed at all. Now that we’re on the verge of leaving and unlikely to return, however, it can’t be avoided.

As it happens, Andrew Roberts, the distinguished historian and biographer of (most recently) Churchill, stepped forward in the Wall Street Journal last month to propose that Britain should build its future around an alliance with Canada, Australia and New Zealand rooted in free trade, liberal migration rules, and security co-operation under the acronym of CANZUK.

This column appeared in September’s Quadrant.
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For most people it’s a…