光荣孤立（Splendid isolation） 是19世纪晚期英国追求的外交政策，由本杰明·迪斯雷利与罗伯特·盖斯科因-塞西尔（索尔兹伯里侯爵）担当首相时所主导。此名词其实是由某一位访问英国的加拿大国会议员所提出，赞扬英国积极不干预欧洲大陆事务。

在各个时代，英国外交政策的基本目标就是保持欧洲大陆均势，不容任何力量破坏这和谐局面。

而第二个目标就是保护英国在海外的殖民地与自治领，皆因自由贸易对帝国发展极为重要。通过殖民地的海路，尤其是连接英国与印度的苏伊士运河，也不可缺少。

光荣孤立之策，可见于英国拒绝加入永久性联盟或是与其他强国定下盟约之举。在另一方面，她又重视自己在海外的殖民地保护国与附属地。同时，在没有英政府的直接管理之下，殖民者借成立势力范围与附属国（client state）而创建了非正式帝国（informal empire）。其实，殖民地并不一定是国家主动创建的，而这情况在其他帝国中也有出现。

"Splendid isolation" was the foreign policy pursued by Great Britain during the late 19th century, especially under the Conservative Party premierships of Benjamin Disraeli and Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury. The term was coined by a Canadian politician, George Eulas Foster (1847-1931), to praise Britain's minimal involvement in European affairs. There has been much debate among historians as to whether this policy was intentional or forced on Britain by contemporary events. Some historians, such as John Charmley, have argued that splendid isolation was a fiction for the period prior to the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, and that the policy was reluctantly pursued thereafter. Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby enunciated the policy in 1866 when he was foreign minister: