Political popularity appears to be broad and sustained but, when eventually it is exhausted, the falling away of support is dramatic.
There are many areas, not least small boats in the Channel, where the UK needs a strong working relationship with France.
Putin’s Russia is closer to home – remember the Salisbury attack – and Islamist extremism is already here.
My great fear is that isolationism on the left and right could take root. And not all interventions have been disastrous – let alone about imposing our values.
In tandem with countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and France, we should consider a stronger humanitarian-orientated alliance which has teeth.
Carter insists the “really interesting question” is whether the Taliban will be able to form a viable Government.
If you want a circus, send for Pen Farthing. There’s a government to run. Number Ten must get a grip.
“We will use every lever we have – political, economic, diplomatic – to help the people of Afghanistan and to protect our own country from harm.”
We need to rethink our foreign policy not in the world we would like, but in the world we actually live in.
The ex-Defence Secretary attacks the US for pulling out during the fighting season in order to fit American domestic priorities.
We must make sure that the Taliban understand that we will respond with military means to any increased security threat against our citizens
We could have degraded Al Qaeda and then left. Or else pursued a proper counter-insurgency plan. Instead, we did neither.
If we couldn’t build a self-sustaining new society in two decades, it may be we could never have done it.
The deal sends a starkly clear message to China – and will reassure India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan that their security interests are also British interests.