Britain in Global Politics Volume 1: From Gladstone to Churchill (Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World)

This volume of essays focuses upon Britain's international and imperial role from the mid-Victorian era through until the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. This volume of essays focuses upon Britain's international and imperial role from the mid-Victorian era through until the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Individual chapters by acknowledged authorities in their field deal with a variety of broad-ranging and particular issues, including: 'cold wars' before the Cold War in Anglo-Russian relations; Lord Curzon and the diplomacy of war and peace-making; air-power as an instrument of colonial control; Foreign Office efforts to frame and influence the historical narrative; Winston Churchill's alternative to, and the pursuit of, policies of 'appeasement'; British responses to conflict and regime change in Spain; the Secret Intelligence Service and British diplomacy in East Asia'; Neville Chamberlain and the 'phoney war'; efforts to combat American misperceptions of Britain in wartime; and British-American differences over the future of Italy's colonial possessions. This collection, along with the accompanying volume covering the period after World War 2, is dedicated to the memory of Professor Saki Dockrill Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction: Saki Ruth Dockrill, ‘No Ordinary Professor’....Pages 1-16 ‘A Very Internecine Policy’: Anglo-Russian Cold Wars before the Cold War....Pages 17-49 Curzon’s War and Curzon’s Peace....Pages 50-67 Markers of Modernity or Agents of Terror? Air Policing and Colonial Revolt after World War I....Pages 68-98 Addressing the Past: The Foreign Office and the Vetting of Diplomatic and Ministerial Memoirs during the Years between the World Wars....Pages 99-131 The Secret Intelligence Service and China: The Case of Hilaire Noulens, 1923–1932....Pages 132-152 Strategy and Foreign Policy in Great Britain, 1930–1938: From the Pursuit of the Balance of Power to Appeasement....Pages 153-174 ‘Thank God for the French Army’: Churchill, France and an Alternative to Appeasement in the 1930s....Pages 175-189 Britain and the Spanish Connection, 1931–1947: Non-intervention and Regime Change....Pages 190-219 ‘To Gamble All on a Single Throw’: Neville Chamberlain and the Strategy of the Phoney War....Pages 220-241 The Committee on American Opinion on the British Empire, 1942–1944....Pages 242-260 The Colonial versus the Anti-Colonial: The Failure of Anglo-American Planning on the Future of the Italian Colonies, September 1943–June 1945....Pages 261-281 Back Matter....Pages 283-291