The British empire gave birth to these rogue regimes - this lawless alliance must end

The British empire was undoubtedly the most successful colonial and imperial project of the last 300 years, if success means conquest and exploitation of vast swathes of the planet. While the empire effectively ended in the two decades from 1947 to 1967, its impact on the modern world is still unfolding. Other European former colonial powers have put their history of imperial conquest behind them, and broadly accepted their status as middle powers, but this cannot be said of Britain. The last great catastrophes imposed by the British empire in its death throes were the partition of India in 1947 that caused 1 million deaths and the displacement of 15 million people; and the creation of Israel, supported by the major UN powers, but opposed by the Arab states whose region it was carved from, dispossessing 750,000 Palestinians in 1948. Three post-colonial states that emerged from the British empire have had an outsized impact on 21st-century global politics: the United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters While these are very different governments and social systems, they have commonalities: the United States was a former slave plantation economy that evolved into an industrial powerhouse and global power; Israel was a settler economy that evolved into a tech-military superpower; and the UAE was a string of fishing villages that became the world’s top destination for the ultra rich, and latterly emerged as a regional military power. Moreover, these regimes reproduced the racial hierarchies and colonial governance inherent in the British imperial project; the US and Israel became militarised powers that violently expanded into neighbouring and indigenous territory, and lately, the UAE has joined this club. These regimes reproduced the racial hierarchies and colonial governance inherent in the British imperial project Another such former British colonial regime was apartheid South Africa, but thanks to the global anti-apartheid struggle, and its allies in Africa, Cuba and the Global South, apartheid came to an end. While losing an empire, the UK has bequeathed the world the US imperial hegemony, with the largest military footprint of any empire in history; a hyper-militarist settler colony in Israel; and a Gulf dictatorship, with an apartheid-like economy, with imperial designs on East Africa. The United States took over from the British empire after World War Two and has been almost continuously at war ever since, killing millions in its wars in Korea, Indochina, the Middle East, and interventions in Latin America. Likewise, Israel, since its violent birth in 1948, has continuously been at war with native Palestinians whose land it usurped, as well as with all its Arab neighbours, and since 2023 has carried out a genocide. Following independence in 1971, the UAE evolved as a global trade hub, but more recently under the rule of Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has sought to become a regional power, funding proxy groups and secessionist movements from Libya to Sudan and Somalia. A new East India Company In the words of Gulf analyst Andreas Krieg, the UAE is recreating the first great British colonial enterprise: the East India Company. Like Israel, it now faces accusations of genocide for its arming of the paramilitary RSF, which has carried out mass atrocities against Black Sudanese ethnic groups in Darfur. One might have hoped that having bequeathed to the world this imperial legacy of divide and rule and dispossession, the UK would seek to mitigate the impact, distancing itself from the actions of its colonial forebears, and forge a new peaceful path. UK failed to stop el-Fasher massacre because it feared the UAE, MPs told Read More » But instead, in the 21st century, the UK returned to the imperial wars of the past as a junior ally of the US empire. It has also maintained an alliance with its imperial offspring, and failed to take any remedial steps to counter the actions of Israel and the UAE. Instead, business, military alliances and strategic interests have trumped any moral duty to break with this imperial legacy and turn over a new leaf. The excuse is usually one of pragmatic realism and profit making. In a recent example, reported by Middle East Eye, the British government as penholder on the Sudan crisis at the UN was repeatedly urged by humanitarian experts to take action over the siege and impending assault on North Darfur's capital el-Fasher, which the paramilitary RSF – a group funded and armed by the UAE – was set to overrun. Nathaniel Raymond, founder of Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University, said that repeated calls over 18 months were made to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to raise the alarm and put pressure on its Emirati allies to halt the assault. Those repeated warnings were ignored, questioned or dismissed by Foreign Office officials, said Raymond. He also evidenced the links between the UAE and the RSF and urged the UK to release those findings to put pressure on the Emiratis, but UK officials told him they were under significant pressure from their allies in Abu Dhabi. Following this refusal to act, the RSF carried out a genocidal massacre of an estimated 60,000 people in October 2025, the most ferocious mass killing event this century. Raymond said that the UK government prioritised its diplomatic, economic and security ties with the UAE above averting the genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians in Sudan. Alongside this shameful failure in Sudan are the facts of UK complicity, diplomatic cover and arms sales to Israel throughout the genocide that has likely killed 100,000 Palestinians and over 8,000 Lebanese, with the UK government continuing to deny vast evidence of Israel’s crimes. Addicted to empire These are two recent, heinous examples of how the UK has placed its alliances with the rogue states that emerged from the British empire at the centre of its foreign policy, disregarding international law and its own human rights proclamations. The third is of course its now wholly dysfunctional “special relationship” with Donald Trump's United States as it wages war on Iran, arms Israel, besieges Cuba, and openly attacks the institutions of international law. Britain owes it to the world to turn its back on the imperial alliances that have unleashed such devastation half a century after the empire ended Britain owes it to the world to turn its back on the imperial mindset and dysfunctional alliances that have unleashed such devastation half a century after the empire came to an end. Of course, such a shift will be politically difficult and provoke a backlash from the powerful states involved, as well as from the establishment forces that supports the status quo. But millions of voters have had enough of UK complicity with war crimes and genocide, and would back this change. This is the task of Andy Burnham's foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, but so far there is little sign the new government has any intention of breaking with business as usual, with Miliband’s opening statement apparently written by a Foreign Office version of Chat GBT. Already, Burnham has agreed to continue giving the US access to UK air bases in Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford for its illegal war on Iran. Regardless of who is in power, the establishment’s DNA is addicted to maintaining its position in the imperial order, no matter the cost to the UK’s faded reputation on the global stage. This must change. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.