British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not coin the phrase “ Global Britain ”, which he made liberal use of during the Brexit campaign to symbolise a promised land where the nation might transit from being one among many European Union members to being a world leader again. The term has a more respectable provenance than being just a political slogan. Yet, for all that, it could still turn out to be a cruel illusion for a country which long ago lost an empire yet still has to find a viable economic role in the world. The Global Britain envisaged in a report published earlier this year by the Henry Jackson Society in London, endorsed by Johnson and written by Member of Parliament Bob Seely and foreign relations expert James Rogers, appears at first to offer a seductive “21st Century Vision” for Britain. This would be a Britain which (if not yet torn asunder by Brexit strife) might not rule the waves like Britannia of yore but could use its military might to help protect freedom of navigation . It would be a free trader and a defender of liberal values as well as of its national interest. It is a rather romantic (or quixotic) vision that sees Britain exerting benign democratic influence around the world in support of those who oppose autocracy, economic autarky or mercantilism. The idea of a Global Britain as a defender of rights might have whimsical appeal in Hong Kong, for example. Three years ago, Johnson, then foreign secretary, suggested that people around the world were looking for Britain to lead. “And so, whether we like it or not, we are not some bit part or spear carrier on the world stage. We are a protagonist – a global Britain running a truly global foreign policy,” he said. The economic implications of Global Britain, as elaborated in the vision of the Henry Jackson Society (a cross-party, but conservative think tank named after a former American senator) could certainly appeal in an age characterised increasingly by trade protectionism and political populism . “The UK should build on its free trade traditions to become the global champion of a reformed World Trade Organisation ,” the report said, adding that “the UK is uniquely placed to campaign for change, as it seeks to find terms acceptable to the US, the EU, China and other major trading nations.” Freed of EU constraints, Britain could “build a network of free trading nations”. These would include not only “natural allies” such as Australia , Canada and New Zealand but also powerful nations such as Japan , South Korea , Brazil, Indonesia, Chile and potential superpowers such as India. According to the society's most recent “audit of geopolitical capability”, which assesses the national capabilities of 20 major powers, Britain is “one of very few genuinely global powers, with reach into every region and continent”. It ranks second only to the US and is marginally in front of China. In terms of economy, technology and culture, it performs strongly. Britain’s economic clout remains substantial. Its economy remains the fifth largest in terms of nominal gross national income – and so on. How post-Brexit UK can chart an independent future But could this imagined new stature really compensate for a loss of access to the European market, which is at least partially at risk now, especially if Britain opts for a hard Brexit ? Britain lacks both a sizeable domestic market and a natural economic hinterland – potentially fatal weaknesses. Unlike Japan, another former empire, Britain has ceded much of its manufacturing capacity to competitors in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. What is left is basically a service economy with no assured market for those services. Johnson is eager to negotiate new trade deals but what does Britain have to trade? Global Britain of imperial times, and even well after that, had preferential access to the Commonwealth’s rich raw material resources but allowed Japan and then China to take the lead in processing these into high-value-added manufacturing. Britain abandoned much of its manufacturing capacity while East Asia’s emerging powerhouses grew. Only access to EU markets, negotiated painfully over decades, gave this hollowed-out Britain a new lease of life in an external-tariff-protected environment. Johnson is eager to negotiate new trade deals but what does Britain have to trade? Johnson may cut a dashing figure (when he is not being a clown) and his rallying cry of a Global Britain may instil some misplaced pride in some. The fact, however, is that a post-industrial, services-reliant economy is probably not strong enough to survive the shock of being cut adrift. Japan, on the other hand, still has a sound industrial base and when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe negotiates trade deals with the EU , in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, he has a strong domestic hand to lead from. Britain does not. Anthony Rowley is a veteran journalist specialising in Asian economic and financial affairs