A new report published by Policy Exchange maps the country’s success in securing key international appointments over time and anticipates a cut-throat future where diplomacy, soft power and influence must be refined and reformed.

Co-authored by senior Conservative MPs Liam Fox and Andrew Murisson, with a foreword from Labour peer and former Secretary General of NATO Lord Robertson, the report concludes that the UK does not take seeking leadership positions in international companies sufficiently seriously, allowing other countries to dominate global and regional organisations.

If the UK’s place in the world is to be protected and our role promoted, Britain’s record in putting the right people in the right places within supragovernmental organisations need to urgently improve.