Britain has spent 50 years hunting in vain for its role. Change the question | Timothy Garton Ash

As global power shifts and public spending is slashed, we do need to debate our foreign policy – but on the right terms

Foxhunting may have been curbed, but some Brits are back at another of their traditional pastimes: role-hunting. It's nearly 50 years since the American secretary of state Dean Acheson whipped up a storm by saying that Britain had lost an empire but not yet found a role. Role-hunting has been a British sport ever since. Tally-ho! goes up the cry, every time we have a new...