It has long been a fashion among Western nations to publish government papers describing their future foreign and defence policies. And over the past few years, it is equally trendy for all these papers to announce a shift in attention and resources towards Asia, or the Indo-Pacific region, as today's politically correct term would have it. All European countries - big and small - are doing it.

Seen from this perspective, the publication this week of Britain's so-called "Integrated Review", an assessment of the country's future security, defence, development and foreign policy was unexceptional: It too had a series of promises to contribute to "global stability" as long as a supermarket shopping list, and the obligatory chapter boldly proclaiming an "Indo-Pacific Tilt".