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Reported by Kate McNeil, CSaP Communications Officer
In the autumn of 2020, CSaP convened a workshop which brought together senior government representatives, senior academics, and practitioners from across the British Overseas Territories (BOTs) and the United Kingdom. This workshop was designed as an opportunity for knowledge exchange, and as a chance to examine some of the key policy priorities facing the Overseas Territories. Throughout the discussion, participants explored the future of relations between the UK and its overseas territories, the future of the Overseas Territories as financial services centres, and preparedness and response to crises including pandemics, other disasters, and climate change impacts.
The British Overseas Territories are an important subject of policy for the United Kingdom. In recent years, the BOTs’ profile in Britain and globally has been raised by their involvement in the realm of international affairs as subjects of territorial disputes, victims of disasters and climate change, and as international finance centres which are now at the heart of the debate on tax and transparency. The vulnerabilities, dependencies, prosperity, economies, cultures, societies, environments, governance, and security of the British Overseas Territories have featured or remain on the UK national agenda. For the BOTs, some have also argued that managing relations with Britain and the wider world have become more pressing since the Brexit vote.
Throughout the workshop, participants repeatedly highlighted that the relationships between the UK and the British Overseas Territories have eroded over the past decade. This is in part due to changing global circumstances, and in part due to various events and government actions which have placed a strain upon these relationships. Brexit, the UK’s response to Hurricane Irma, and current responses to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the weakening of these relationships. Moreover, participants suggested that recent UK policy, including the recommendations which emerged from a recent UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee report on Global Britain and the British Overseas Territories, has caused further tensions and claims of constitutional over-reach. Specific areas of contention include policy processes surrounding the adoption of public registers of beneficial ownership, same sex marriage, and the extension of voting rights.
Throughout the workshop, participants expressed a desire for greater clarity around the nature of the relationship between the UK and the BOTs, a re-examination of the expectations on both sides, and a renewed detailed discussion around the financial, regulatory, and legal frameworks which play a part in their relationships. Here, workshop participants envisioned shaping a more beneficial, balanced relationship between the Overseas Territories and the United Kingdom. They emphasized a need in dialogues about the future of the relationship between the UK and the British Overseas Territories for meaningful respect and acknowledgement, which ensures that issues are explored more from the perspective of the Overseas Territories, and not just the perspective of the metropole.
Participants also emphasized the need for greater understanding of the BOTs in order to make the most of their diversity and strengths. Here, one discussion participant suggested that the British Overseas Territories need to be further empowered to engage in ways which will allow the expertise of each individual territory to be fully harnessed. This is likely to be accompanied by promotion of the British Overseas Territories in the UK and continued public diplomacy efforts. More broadly, discussion participants emphasized that while the BOTs are diverse and may not always have common interests, the power imbalance between the UK and the BOTs means that there is a great value in speaking together with a common, consistent, stronger voice on interests that are important to all of the BOTs.