Table Of ContentBRITISH FOREIGN POLICY AND
THE ATLANTIC AREA
By the same author
LIBERAL PARTY POLITICS IN BRITAIN
BRITISH
FOREIGN POLICY
AND THE
ATLANTIC AREA
The Techniques of Accommodation
Arthur Cyr
© Arthur Cyr 1979
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1979978-0-333-26339-6
All rights reserved. No part of this publieation may be
reprodueed or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1979 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS L TD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in Delhi
Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos
Melboume New York Singapore Tokyo
Filmset by Oxprint Ltd, Oxford
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
Cyr. Arthur
British foreign poliey and the Atlantie area
1. Great Britain - Foreign relations - 1945-
I. Title
327.41 '0171 '3 DA588
ISBN 978-1-349-04614-0 ISBN 978-1-349-04612-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04612-6
This book is sold subject
to the standard conditions
of the Net Book Agreement
Contents
List of Tables VI
Introduction 1
1. THE BRITISH ROLE 5
2. POLITICAL CULTURE, INSTITUTIONS AND 35
PRACTICES
3. MILITARY AND STRATEGIC CHANGE 60
4. BRITAIN AND EUROPE 88
5. BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES 116
6. THE NECESSITY FOR ACCOMMODATION 143
Notes and References 160
Index 167
List of Tables
Table 2.1 Diplomatic Service Personnel: United States
and Britain 42
Table 3.1 Defence Expenditure: Britain and US 86
Table 4.1 Popular Attitudes towards the Common Market 107
Table 4.2 Popular Attitudes towards Resolution ofthe
Common Market Issue 110
Table 6.1 Seconding of Officers between Diplomatic and
Domestic Services 158
Introduction
The purpose of this book is to provide a general overview and analysis
of British foreign policy in the period since the close of the Second
World War. Particular attention is given to relationships within the
Atlantic area, the region of most consequence to postwar British
foreign policy. As that nation has retreated from broadly based inter-
national empire and influence, there has been more direct and explicit
engagement in European affairs, principally through membership of
the European Community. Entry into the Community, finally
achieved on 1 January 1973 after two earlier rebuffs by the French,
capped a decade of effort to gain admission and also a much longer
period during which the British had been trying to come to terms with
the necessity of a new attitude toward Europe. Also in the Atlantic
area, the postwar period brought increasing reliance and emphasis
upon ties with the United States. That relationship-always special-
became clearly more crucial to Britain.
Consequently, attention is particularly focused on relationships with
the United States on the one hand and Western Europe on the other.
In both cases, there is an effort to place more recent developments in
the broader context of the history of relations among the nations
involved. The special relationship with the United States has been
referred to frequently by both British and American leaders,
especially in earlier years of co-operation in crisis during the Second
World War and before the decline of Britain became so pronounced.
Rarely defined in any explicit sense, it is nevertheless true that the
foreign policies of the two nations have been linked by cultural
similarities along with the comparatively specific interest in preventing
European powers from achieving positions of strong influence within
the Americas. British-European relations provide more dramatic
evidence of change in British policy in response to diminution of
British power. As described more fully later, the decision by Prime
Minister Macmillan in 1961 to apply for admission to the European
2 British Foreign Policy and the Atlantic Area
Community itself capped a period of extensive, if slow-moving, change
in British perceptions and policy. In the past, the Continent had been
viewed as an area which was important but separate from Britain, an
area which could be influenced most successfully if kept at a distance.
In characteristic fashion, this most important shift in the national
policy to acceptance of formal membership in comprehensive Euro-
pean economic institutions was handled gradually, not abruptly,
through a process of coalition-changing and consensus-building within
the government and administrative bureaucracy of the nation and the
hierarchy of the ruling Conservative Party. The emphasis on gradual-
ism, incrementalism and a consensual approach is developed at length
in the study which follows. In addition to concentration on major
allies, detailed attention is paid to the structures of decision-making,
characteristics of decision-makers and foreign policy professionals,
and the broader institutional and cultural environment of the political
system.
This book is not designed as an extensive original research effort.
There were some interviews with British politicians and civil servants,
but main reliance was placed on sources already available. Two dif-
ferent sorts of motives underlay and provided the main motivation for
this project. First, during two years of teaching a course on interna-
tional relations in the Atlantic area, I was impressed by the absence of
a reasonably current book on British foreign policy suitable for use as a
supplementary text for undergraduate as well as graduate instruction.
For this reason, the book which follows is geared as much to the
student as to the professional audience.
Second, I have for some time been interested in employing existing
literature to attempt to construct a comparatively positive evaluation
of the record of British foreign policy during the period since the
Second World War. Although there is a fairly clearly indentifiable
tradition in the disciplines of political science and history in the United
States of examining British political structures and political history
with considerable sympathy, in more recent decades the international
decline of Britian has been reflected in a more critical and unflattering
attitude toward policies and institutions of that nation. British foreign
policy, along with domestic politics, has been attacked for drift in face
of and sluggishness in adjusting to new circumstances, lack of innova-
tion and imagination, absence of foresight and related shortcomings.
The two-party system, which was once praised for encouraging com-
promise, continuity and stability, has more recently been described as
hampering fresh approaches to policy and fresh faces in leadership
Introduction 3
positions. The current tendency is discussed in this study, which
attempts to interpret decisions and events in a manner to give a more
equal balance of credit as well as blame to British leadership for the
method of the national response to a markedly changed international
environment. Related to this, there is development of the basic point
that current British political culture, institutions and practices do not
reflect an historical departure. The method of gradualism preferred
today is in tune with the British approach to great power status in the
past. As in the past, there is the virtue of stability and balance to this
approach.
Various institutions and individuals assisted in the production of this
volume. They are too numerous to cite individually, but some in
particular should be mentioned. The Academic Senate of the Univer-
sity of California supported research travel to Britain. Helpful
comments and other assistance has been provided by Professors
Vincent Davis of the University of Kentucky, Peter Merkl of the
University of California at Santa Barbara, and Roman Kolkowicz and
Richard Sisson of the University of California at Los Angeles. A
revised version of the chapter on British defence policy appeared as a
working paper of the UCLA Center for Arms Control and Interna-
tional Security. In different ways, the scholarly resources of that centre
were useful in this work. I am sorry indeed that it is not possible to
mention by name all the professionals in government in Britain who
shared their insights, information and good will. Outside of the civil
and diplomatic services, David Astor, Samuel Brittan, Lord Gore-
Booth, Stephen Haseler, Thomas McNally and Sir Con O'Neill are
among a number of individuals who have been especially helpful to this
study.
ArthurCyr
Chicago, Illinois
August 1978
