A challenging analysis of British Foreign Policy is provided at a time when Britain possessed the biggest Empire that humankind has ever known. In this Empire India had a unique position, comprising 97 per cent of Britain's Asiatic Empire. All British statesmen deemed it essential to maintain their hold over India whatever the risk or cost of doing so. This work focuses on aspects that have been hitherto marginalized. It also contributes to debates surrounding the origins of the First World War, the multipolar diplomacy of the late nineteenth century, and the nature of imperial connections.
A challenging analysis of British Foreign Policy is provided at a time when Britain possessed the biggest Empire that humankind has ever known. In this Empire India had a unique position, comprising 97 per cent of Britain's Asiatic Empire. All British statesmen deemed it essential to maintain their hold over India whatever the risk or cost of doing so. This work focuses on aspects that have been hitherto marginalized. It also contributes to debates surrounding the origins of the First World War, the multipolar diplomacy of the late nineteenth century, and the nature of imperial connections.
British foreign policy has always been based on distinctive principles since the setting up of the Foreign Office in 1782 as one of the two original offices of state, the other being the Home Office. As a small island nation, Britain was historically fearful of over mighty continental powers, which might seek to menace its trade routes, and naval primacy was essential. Britain must dominate at sea while avoiding, involvement in major continental wars and Britain accomplished this successfully until the end of the 19th century. After World War II and the Cold War Britain was no longer the global naval super power and they had to adapt to a secondary, supportive role. This was to be based on its membership of regional defense and economic organizations in Europe. The Historical Dictionary of British Foreign Policy provides an overview of the conduct of British diplomacy since the setting up of the Foreign Office in 1782. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, an extensive bibliography, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on British prime ministers, foreign secretaries, foreign office staff and leading diplomats, but also on related military and political-economic aspects. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about British foreign policy.
External challenges, strategic threats, and war have shaped the course of modern British history. This volume examines how Britain mobilized to meet these challenges and how developments in the constitution, state, public sphere, and economy were a response to foreign policy issues from the Restoration to the rise of New Labour.
With this pioneering approach to the study of international history, T. G. Otte reconstructs the underlying principles, élite perceptions and 'unspoken assumptions' that shaped British foreign policy between the death of Palmerston and the outbreak of the First World War. Grounded in a wide range of public and private archival sources, and drawing on sociological insights, The Foreign Office Mind presents a comprehensive analysis of the foreign service as a 'knowledge-based organization', rooted in the social and educational background of the diplomatic élite and the broader political, social and cultural fabric of Victorian and Edwardian Britain. The book charts how the collective mindset of successive generations of professional diplomats evolved, and reacted to and shaped changes in international relations during the second half of the nineteenth century, including the balance of power and arms races, the origins of appeasement and the causes of the First World War.
How and why did Britain become involved in the First World War? Taking into account the scholarship of the last twenty-five years, this second edition of Zara S. Steiner's classic study, thoroughly revised with Keith Neilson, explores a subject which is as highly contentious as ever. While retaining the basic argument that Britain went to war in 1914 not as a result of internal pressures but as a response to external events, Steiner and Neilson reject recent arguments that Britain became involved because of fears of an 'invented' German menace, or to defend her Empire. Instead, placing greater emphasis than before on the role of Russia, the authors convincingly argue that Britain entered the war in order to preserve the European balance of power and the nation's favourable position within it. Lucid and comprehensive, Britain and the Origins of the First World War brings together the bureaucratic, diplomatic, economic, strategical and ideological factors that led to Britain's entry into the Great War, and remains the most complete survey of the pre-war situation.
This groundbreaking study offers a genuinely multidisciplinary exploration of cultural influences on foreign policy. Through an innovative blend of historical analysis, neoclassical realist theory, and cultural studies, Amelia Hadfield-Amkhan shows how national identity has been a catalyst for British foreign policy decisions, helping the state to both define and defend itself. Representing key points of crisis, her case studies include the 1882 attempt to construct a tunnel to France, the 1982 Falklands War, and the 2003 decision to remain outside the Eurozone. The author argues that these events, marking the decline of a great power, have forced Britain into periods of deep self-reflection that are carved into its culture and etched into its policy stances on central issues of sovereignty, territorial integrity, international recognition, and even monetary policy.
“You offer yourself to be slain,” General Sir John Hackett once observed, remarking on the military profession. “This is the essence of being a soldier.” For this reason as much as any other, the British army has invariably been seen as standing apart from other professions—and sometimes from society as a whole. A British Profession of Arms effectively counters this view. In this definitive study of the late Victorian army, distinguished scholar Ian F. W. Beckett finds that the British soldier, like any other professional, was motivated by considerations of material reward and career advancement. Within the context of debates about both the evolution of Victorian professions and the nature of military professionalism, Beckett considers the late Victorian officer corps as a case study for weighing distinctions between the British soldier and his civilian counterparts. Beckett examines the role of personality, politics, and patronage in the selection and promotion of officers. He looks, too, at the internal and external influences that extended from the press and public opinion to the rivalry of the so-called rings of adherents of major figures such as Garnet Wolseley and Frederick Roberts. In particular, he considers these processes at play in high command in the Second Afghan War (1878–81), the Anglo-Zulu War (1879), and the South African War (1899–1902). Based on more than thirty years of research into surviving official, semiofficial, and private correspondence, Beckett’s work offers an intimate and occasionally amusing picture of what might affect an officer’s career: wealth, wives, and family status; promotion boards and strategic preferences; performance in the field and diplomatic outcomes. It is a remarkable depiction of the British profession of arms, unparalleled in breadth, depth, and detail.
"Masterly ... A fascinating tour d'horizon of the Edwardian political scene. This must be a definitive account." – Professor Jane Ridley, author of George V: Never a Dull Moment "A tour de force, sympathetic in its treatment of the subject, eminently wise in its judgement and invariably fair in its verdicts. It purrs along like a Rolls-Royce engine." – Professor T. G. Otte, author of Statesman of Europe: A Life of Sir Edward Grey "This brilliant book from Britain's most important constitutional historian upends the orthodoxy about the decadent Edwardians. A masterpiece of intelligent history, both forceful and subtle, which transforms how we view not just those most complex Edwardians but also our own equally complex times." – Professor Richard Aldous, author of The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs Disraeli "Brilliant. Instantly the leading history of this turbulent and critical period in Britain's transition towards a modern democracy." – Professor Robert Blackburn, King's College London "Vernon Bogdanor has the habit of unearthing gems that have been missed by others. He does it again in this magisterial work on post-Gladstonian Britain by challenging some of the long-established myths about this period that deserve to be cast aside." – Professor Malcolm Murfett, King's College London "Professor Bogdanor argues with conviction and sometimes passion but always with judiciousness and in the light of deep reflection. The result is a masterly work which speaks to the politics of our own time." – Alvin Jackson, Richard Lodge Professor of History, University of Edinburgh "An extraordinary exploration of a political world whose dynamics continue to shape the future of liberal constitutionalism." – Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University "Crisp, authoritative and lucid." – Nicholas Owen, associate professor of politics, University of Oxford The turbulent years of 1895 to 1914 changed Britain's political landscape for ever. They saw a transition from aristocratic rule to mass politics and heralded a new agenda which still dominates today. The issues of the period – economic modernisation, social welfare and equality, secondary and technical education, a new role for Britain in the world – were complex and difficult. Indeed, they proved so thorny that despite the efforts of the Edwardians they remain among the most pressing problems we face in the twenty-first century. The period has often been seen as one of decadence, of the strange death of liberal Britain. In contrast, Vernon Bogdanor believes that the robustness of Britain's parliamentary and political institutions and her liberal political culture, with the commitment to rational debate and argument, were powerful enough to carry her through one of the most trying periods of her history and so make possible the remarkable survival of liberal Britain. In this wide-ranging and sometimes controversial survey, one of our pre-eminent political historians dispels the popular myths that have grown up about this critical period in Britain's story and argues that it set the scene for much that is laudable about our nation today.
