This book examines the evolution of the Foreign Office in the 20th century and the way in which it has responded to Britain's changing role in international affairs. The last century was one of unprecedented change in the way foreign policy and diplomacy were conducted. The work of 'The Office' expanded enormously in the 20th century, and oversaw the transition from Empire to Commonwealth, with the merger of the Foreign and Colonial Offices taking place in the 1960s. The book focuses on the challenges posed by waging world war and the process of peacemaking, as well as the diplomatic gridlock of the Cold War. Contributions also discusses ways in which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office continues to modernise to meet the challenges of diplomacy in the 21st century. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Contemporary British History.

In this comprehensive and accessible account, Paul Doerr examines British foreign policy from the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 to the outbreak of World War Two in 1939. How did British leaders try to preserve the peace in the years after Versailles? Why did they resort to appeasement when confronted by Adolf Hitler? To what extent were British leaders limited by public opinion, economics, and global commitments? These questions and more are answered in this volume which surveys the results of the Paris Peace conference, and the crushing of the hopes of the 1920s under the impact of the Depression. British leaders are here seen trying to cope with the multiple crises of the 1930s, from Manchuria in 1931 to the final descent into war in 1939. Doerr’s survey is enhanced by detailed portraits of the leading actors and accounts of some of the famous meetings and events.

This book survey Britain ́s foreign policy since 1870. Conventional accounts stress the rulers ́ benevolent rhetoric: I present the evidence that refutes this superficial, liberal view. Britain ́s economy is the key to understanding its foreign policy: capitalism causes a conflict-ridden foreign policy. The rulers ́ focus has been on seizing profits from abroad, for which they have sacrificed the welfare of the British people. British governments - Conservative, Liberal and Labour alike - have represented the tiny minority who own the means of production, and have opposed the great majority who have to work for a living. The ruling class ́s external focus has also damaged relations with other countries and helped to produce the two recurring types of war - wars between rival empires and wars against national liberation.

Aspects of British Policy and the Treaty of Versailles looks at some key issues involving British policy and the Treaty of Versailles, one of the twentieth century’s most controversial international agreements. The book discusses the role of experts and the Danzig Question at the Paris Peace Conference; the establishment of diplomatic history as a field of academic research; and the role of David Lloyd George and his Vision of Post-War Europe. Contributors also look at the restitution of cultural objects in German possession, and after the war, the Treaty’s impact on both Britain’s enemy, Germany, and its ally, France, revealing how it profoundly affected the European balance of power. Aspects of British Policy and the Treaty of Versailles will be of great interest to scholars of diplomatic history as well as modern history and international relations more generally. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of Diplomacy & Statecraft.

This comprehensive study is the first scholarly account explaining how the British and Indian armies adapted to the peculiar demands of fighting an irregular tribal opponent in the mountainous no-man's-land between India and Afghanistan. It does so by discussing how a tactical doctrine of frontier fighting was developed and 'passed on' to succeeding generations of soldiers. As this book conclusively demonstrates this form of colonial warfare always exerted a powerful influence on the organisation, equipment, training and ethos of the Army in India.

This book focuses on the Royal Navy's response to the rise of the German navy under Hitler within the broad context of the ongoing debate about Britain's policy of appeasement. It combines a narrative of diplomatic events and Whitehall policy-making with the thematic analysis of naval intelligence and war planning. Drawing on the wide range of sources, the author argues that the Admiralty's enthusiasm for naval armaments diplomacy with Nazi Germany was far more rational and more complex than previous studies would suggest.

Traditionally, in general studies of the First World War, the Middle East is an arena of combat that has been portrayed in romanticised terms, in stark contrast to the mud, blood, and presumed futility of the Western Front. Battles fought in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Arabia offered a different narrative on the Great War, one in which the agency of individual figures was less neutered by heavy artillery. As with the historiography of the Western Front, which has been the focus of sustained inquiry since the mid-1960s, such assumptions about the Middle East have come under revision in the last two decades – a reflection of an emerging ‘global turn’ in the history of the First World War. The ‘sideshow’ theatres of the Great War – Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Pacific – have come under much greater scrutiny from historians. The fifteen chapters in this volume cover a broad range of perspectives on the First World War in the Middle East, from strategic planning issues wrestled with by statesmen through to the experience of religious communities trying to survive in war zones. The chapter authors look at their specific topics through a global lens, relating their areas of research to wider arguments on the history of the First World War.

This book provides a comprehensive examination of British policy during the Ruhr occupation crisis of 1922-24. It explores Britain's attitude to reparations and to broader questions of postwar European reconstruction and stability, revealing the dilemmas caused by Britain's underlying strategic and economic weakness after the First World War. It highlights the difficulties Britain encountered when dealing with her European neighbours and provides a valuable insight into the complexity of British foreign policy during this brief but crucial period.

The relationship of policy to strategy is a central issue in international studies. Using the little-known but highly relevant example of British planning for the occupation in 1945, the book provides a case-study in the practicalities of 'liberating' enemy territory. It looks at the way in which policy was developed and then reconciled with those of her Allies; how negotiations were directly affected by the existing - and expected - strategic situation; and how the military were involved in the reconstruction of Austria.