Just 1 in 4 Brits think the UK is viewed positively on the world stage, with most wanting their country to play a large role in international affairs, exclusive poll shows

I — American — view the UK positively in international affairs, but frankly, if you’re comparing the UK to its recent history:

The UK itself has grown, but a lot of international influence came from the UK being, globally, at the leading edge of the Industrial Revolution. That’s a discovery-of-fire level event, a pretty rare situation in human history.

That was a major part of the Great Divergence; the UK was highly developed, and pulled wildly more than its weight in per capita terms.

If the bar that a Briton is setting is relative to the UK’s international role over the past couple centuries, that’s a high bar to set, because the UK had extraordinary influence in the world in that period. That’s not because the UK’s economy has become weaker, but because the world has been economically converging; less-developed countries have been catching up. I’d say that the UK definitely punches well above its weight in population terms internationally today, and is probably relatively-engaged. Could it do more? Well, I’m sure it could. But I don’t really think of the UK as especially isolationist. Name another country of 70 million that independently has as large an impact internationally.