The Foreign Policy of Nostalgia

The politics of nostalgia worked its magic in the context of the Brexit referendum, where a single Yes or No vote was needed to make a difference, but it was hardly enough to manage the post-referendum environment, and it is certainly not a good compass for navigating the twenty-first century’s international system. Brexiteers fantasized about London’s future based on its glorious past, but never laid out a clear, practical, and pragmatic plan leading away from Brussels and towards their idealized temporal destination. The gap between restorative aspirations and political reality was simply too wide. Since June 2016, Brexiteers have flirted with a variety of proposals. They had no real clue where they were heading, with their options ranging from a “glorious Brexit”, a “red-white-and-blue Brexit”, a “hard Brexit” to a “soft Brexit”, a “clean Brexit”, a “jobs-first Brexit”, and even the “no-deal Brexit”. This chapter is aimed at dismantling the fallacies produced by nostalgic arguments, with a particular focus on the Commonwealth, the “Singapore plus” model and security policy.