The UK and the War on Ukraine: Status-seeking in the European security order

The book examines the UK’s response to Russia’s war on Ukraine from the annexation of Crimea in 2014 to December 2025.

It traces in detail how Britain has supported Ukraine – militarily, economically, diplomatically, and through sanctions and defence innovation – and how it has sought to lead the rebuilding of European security as the United States retrenches and the world order becomes multipolar. It argues that British policy is best understood as the status-seeking strategy of a major regional power, with a foreign policy strategy and security leadership role central to upholding the UK’s status in Europe. Making a distinctive contribution by linking interactionist role theory to the status-seeking literature, treating national roles as social structures enacted within a contested status hierarchy and status-seeking as the key motive for role enactment, the book provides a conceptually rigorous and empirically rich study of British foreign policy and of the war’s international relations.

This book will be of key interest to anyone seeking to understand Britain’s place in European security after Brexit.