Does Britain still shape global decisions after Brexit?

MATCH OF THE DAY: KOF Political Globalisation — Britain 2, EU 1

Referee: KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich

Boris Johnson sold Brexit as a route back to “an enterprising, outward-looking and truly global Britain, generous in temper and engaged with the world.” The right test for that promise is the KOF Political Globalisation measure, which tracks embassies, international NGOs, UN peacekeeping, memberships of international organisations, and treaties. Ten years on, Britain does top the table. The jump shows Britain still has diplomatic reach; it does not prove Brexit created it. This is the first thing to see: Brexit did not make Britain newly powerful so much as make British power more standalone and less embedded. 

SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

This is not a clean Brexit victory lap. In the latest official KOF Political Globalisation Rankings 2025, the UK is first on the overall political globalisation index with 96.74, ahead of France on 96.27, Germany on 96.19, and Italy on 95.92. But the split under the bonnet matters more than the podium photo. Britain is first on de facto political globalisation, the bit driven by embassies, NGOs and peacekeeping, yet only fourth on de jure political globalisation, behind Germany, France and Italy on memberships and treaties. In plain English, Britain still travels well, but it is less deeply wired into the rule-book side of international power than its main continental peers. 

Why?

3 REASONS why Britain is still just top

1) PLAN — Global Britain was a slogan, Ukraine was a cause

Brexit’s promise was expansion: more sovereignty would mean more global clout. But a line about “truly global Britain” was not a funded diplomatic mechanism. The European Council on Foreign Relations argued that “Global Britain” looked like “little more than a slogan, not a foreign policy,” while the Institute for Government warned that Britain would find it much harder to have real influence in the EU once it was no longer “in the room.” Nice shirt, no tactics board. 

Plan score: UK 4/10, EU 7/10 — one side had a system; the other had a slogan.

2) POLICY — Brexit burned diplomatic bandwidth just to stand still

On policy, Brexit handed Whitehall a giant reconstruction job. The UK Parliament Commons Library says ministers eventually focused on 158, later 157, international agreements that had to be replaced or rolled over, after sifting through a much larger stock of EU-linked treaties affecting up to 168 other countries. At the same time, the Institute for Government notes the UK could no longer rely on votes and vetoes in Brussels and would need to lobby from outside. Brexit gave Britain more treaty paperwork and fewer seats at the table. 

Policy score: UK 5/10, EU 7/10 — busier, yes; stronger, not obviously. 

3) PERFORMANCE — Britain won on reach, not on embedded leverage

Here the scoreboard turns awkwardly interesting. KOF says the United Kingdom “claim[ed] first place” in political globalisation in 2023, ahead of France and Germany. Yet the same official ranking file shows why: Britain was number one on de facto political globalisation, but only number four on de jure political globalisation, while Germany led the de jure league and France and Italy also beat Britain there. So Britain outperformed its peers on active diplomatic presence, but not on the institutional plumbing of international power. Britain still had the boots; Brexit changed the pitch. 

Performance score: UK 7/10, EU 8/10 — stronger on reach, weaker on embed. 

FINAL WHISTLE — what this score really means

Did Brexit make Britain more diplomatically powerful in the world? Not in the simple, advertised sense. It preserved, and from 2022 onwards - especially regarding Ukraine - visibly showcased, parts of Britain’s inherited diplomatic reach. But it also weakened the country’s embedded leverage inside the European system it had used for decades. Britain’s problem on diplomatic power is that a lot of embassies can't disguise a loss of embedded leverage.

The next job is not to reheat the “Global Britain” slogan. It is to rebuild influence where influence is actually made: through trusted alliances, stable frameworks, and rule-setting clubs as well as flags on chancery doors. If nothing changes, Britain can keep looking global while shaping less of the ground beneath global decisions. 

SEE WHERE BRITAIN REALLY STANDS