Large Stakes, Small Shares: Integrating Youth Perspectives into British Foreign Policy
The post-war era has been characterised by increasingly globalised economies, underpinned by institutions designed to avoid the conflicts of the early 20th century. Like our global counterparts, this is the only framework that we, the British youth, have ever known. That era is coming to an end, replaced by a new world system of economic nationalism, the erosion of respect for the rules based international system, and the decay of multilateralism. Since that breakdown directly threatens our future, we believe the government has a duty to engage meaningfully with us and safeguard the advantages of the postwar order from which previous generations benefitted.
Young people will face the stampede of the three horses of the apocalypse (climate change, digital governance and security). A British Foreign Policy Group poll found that over 36% of 18-25 year olds view the climate crisis as Britain’s main security concern. Yet, it is difficult to identify a single piece of British foreign policy or decision-making that has taken account of our perspectives. To exclude our voices in policy-making is both a reprehensible moral shortcoming and a major strategic oversight. Integrating youth participation into foreign policy decision-making would offer the UK Government new and different perspectives, whilst delivering economic and political opportunities.
A recent paper by Chatham House found that only 19% of 18-24-year olds trust politicians. If the Labour government is to benefit from lowering the UK’s voting age to 16, it must address the deficit of engagement and education. If we do not feel heard, there is a risk that more will turn to far-right populism instead.
Our voices should be constructively involved in developing UK foreign policy. By recognising the value of our lived experiences, the Government can convert our interest into opportunity. Doing so aligns with the Foreign Secretary’s commitment to progressive realism and demonstrates the Government’s commitment to guaranteeing a rules-based international order for future generations.
Cost-neutral Opportunities to Integrate Youth Voices into UK Foreign Policy
1. Involvement in the FCDO Leadership Conference
Participation in the FCDO’s annual Leadership Conference would normalise our involvement in the development of British foreign policy. Youth leaders would be tasked in a break-out session to suggest foreign policy proposals on a set of strategic themes, which would be presented in the Plenary Sessions. This would create a dialogue between FCDO leadership and Britain’s most dynamic young minds on important policy issues such as technology, social media, AI, or climate change. These areas would benefit from our innovative and alternative proposals.
2. Working with the UK’s Trade Envoys
The UK Government has appointed 30 MPs as Trade Envoys. We propose that each TE is supported by a Youth Envoy. This would give us exposure to the trade process, inward delegations, soft diplomacy, and bilateral relations, as well as offering the TE access to youth perspectives, which could strategically improve the social media impact of the TE and their broader engagement. The TE would also benefit from our assistance in stakeholder mapping and research. By involving Youth Envoys, the TEs would demonstrate the difference that their roles make both at home and abroad.
3. Participation in Strategic Dialogues
One simple way for the UK to ‘reinvigorate alliances and forge new partnerships’, would be to incorporate our perspectives into the UK’s bilateral Strategic Dialogues with its friends and allies. We are an invaluable soft power asset, which the Government should be more creative in deploying as part of its drive to create growth and deliver security. Meaningful exposure to policy-level discussion and negotiations about foreign policy, trade, and diplomacy would also enable us to contribute meaningfully to the UK’s future. The bilateral partner would obviously be invited to include their own youth delegation.
4. Involve our Perspectives in International Partnerships
The Youth Policy Dialogue on EU Foreign Policy was established earlier this year, to ‘incorporate the youth perspective into policy-making and suggest practical methods to integrate youth voices into EU foreign policy’. The UK could emulate this approach to accelerate achievement of the UN Sustainability Goals by establishing a delegate exchange between UK youth and representatives from the EU Youth Policy Dialogue. Such a system would also help to strengthen the UK’s relationship with the EU that has been so badly damaged since Brexit.
Conclusion
Low-cost, impact-driven approaches have been deployed successfully by third sector initiatives. Since 2012, the Future Leaders Network has sent delegates to represent UK youth at the engagement groups of the G7 and G20. Far from being tokenistic, these civil society programmes provide young people with exposure to international affairs, whilst demonstrating the real-world value of relationship-building. The importance of youth dialogue and policymaking has also been shown by Chatham House’s Common Futures Conversations initiative, in which more than 2000 young people from 120 nations have taken part.
The new world order requires that the UK Government adapts its foreign policy development. Integrating the youth into foreign policy development will not only give our perspectives a sense of agency, it will also slow the decline of the rules-based international system and help the Government build a better system for the future.
Thomas Reilly is a former British Ambassador. He served in Embassies around the world, including in Argentina, Kuwait, Yemen, Egypt, Mauritania and Morocco. Thomas was also Deputy Head of the Foreign Office’s Counter Terrorism and Climate Change and Energy Departments.
He was Head of Government Relations for Shell UK Ltd. Since leaving the UK’s Foreign Office in mid-2020, Thomas has set up his own geopolitical advisory business through which he provides strategic policy advice to a range of major UK and European companies.
Thomas is an Honorary Professor at Coventry University and sits on the Vice Chancellor’s Advisory Board. He is also a trustee of a girls’ education charity as well as a member of the Board of Governors for the UK’s first British School in Morocco.
Louis Smith is currently the UK delegate for energy & environment to the youth engagement group of the G7 (Y7).
He is a recent graduate from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics. Alongside this, he published a policy paper on climate migration through NDP. Before this, he gained experience in the built environment and student sustainability projects.
Cover Image Courtesy of UN Women/Ryan Brown: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/