Jeremy Black. British Politics and Foreign Policy, 1727–1744. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2014. Pp. xxiv + 294. £75.00 (cloth).

The Diary of Ivan Maisky, a diplomat, Soviet Envoy (later Ambassador) to the United Kingdom from 1932 to 1943 is one of the valuable sources on the interwar history of international relations and WWII. Maisky never saw his diaries returned to him after they had been confiscated at the time of his arrest in 1953. It was declassified by the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation and published in 2006-2009 with the commentaries of Russian scholars. The analysis of the Diary which contains unique details about Soviet-British relations casts new light on the roles of Great Britain and the USSR in the pre-war international crises and allows for a re-evaluation of the two powers’ efforts aimed at preventing or delaying the war. When the Diary is juxtaposed with the declassified British archive materials, the degree to which the British officials trusted the Soviet Envoy/Ambassador as well as the level of his awareness of the undercurrents of British politics become clearer. The authors argue that the Versailles System had failed by the mid-1920s and was replaced by the Locarno System based on the guarantees of Germany’s western borders. In the mid-1930s the Locarno System was in disarray despite British efforts to save it through concessions and the appeasement policy. The «Diplomat’s Diary» shows a struggle within the British elite between the supporters and the opponents of the appeasement policy linked with the search for a new configuration of the European system of security.

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Book Reviews: Political Theory of Ancient India, The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy, Nicholas of Cusa and Medieval Political Thought, Metodologia E Storia Nelle Dottrine Politiche, La Ragione Dello Stato, The Anarchists, The Politics of Conscience: T. H. Green and His Age, British Politics in the Suez Crisis, British Politics in Transition, 1945–1963, Sir T. E. May's Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usages of Parliament, A Parliamentary Dictionary, on Being an Independent M.P, The Reform of Parliament. The Crisis of British Government in the 1960's, Cabinet Reform in Britain, 1914–1963, Tocqueville and England, Der Englische Parlamentarismus in Der Deutschen Politischen Theorie im Zeitalter Bismarcks (1857–1890), The Italian Prefects, Italy after Fascism, Interest Groups in Italian Politics, Dictatorship and Totalitarianism, Mussolini and Italian Fascism, Soviet Russian Imperialism, The Establishment of the Department of Trade: A Case-Study in Administrative Reorganization, The Role of Theory in International Relations, Walter Lippmann's Philosophy of International Politics, Introduction a L'Histoire Des Relations Internationales, Research in International Relations, from Wilson to Roosevelt: Foreign Policy of the United States, 1913–1945, Defence in a Changing World, Modern Warfare, The Peaceful Atom in Foreign Policy, Operational Research in the R.A.F., Administering the Atom for Peace, Scientists and National Policy-Making

Political Studies ◽

10.1111/j.1467-9248.1965.tb00373.x ◽

1965 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 260-279

Author(s):

S. N. Mukherjee ◽

Henry Tudor ◽

Antony J. Black ◽

Roger Clements ◽

Richard A. Chapman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

International Relations ◽

National Policy ◽

The United States ◽

British Politics ◽

Suez Crisis ◽

Italian Fascism ◽

Ancient India ◽

The Individual ◽

Modern Warfare

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Jeremy Black. British Foreign Policy in the Age of Walpole. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd. 1985. Pp. xi, 202. £16.00.

Albion A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies ◽

10.2307/4050001 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 500-502

Author(s):

Karl W. Schweizer

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

Black British ◽

British Foreign Policy

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The Tories and Europe. By John Turner. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001. 282p. $29.95.

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055402890360 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 96 (3) ◽

pp. 675-676

Author(s):

Samuel H. Beer

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

European Integration ◽

Comparative Politics ◽

Balance Of Power ◽

Electoral Behavior ◽

Domestic Policy ◽

Political Agenda ◽

British Politics ◽

Social Democratic ◽

The Past

In this thoroughly researched, well-organized, and clearly written work, John Turner raises important questions of comparative politics. The book is packed with facts and informed by ideas. You may well disagree with his conclusions, as I do. But you must give him credit for the seriousness of his concerns and his willingness to present the evidence, even though it can sometimes be used to support a different interpretation. “Over the past forty years,” he writes, when stating his central conclusion, “Europe has transformed the nature of British politics and Tory politics in particular” (p. 1). Contrary to a view common among political scientists that foreign policy normally has far less influence on electoral behavior than on domestic policy, he finds that Britain's relation to European integration has “gradually…moved to the heart of the domestic political agenda” (p. 1), radically altering the balance of power between the two main parties. As the Euroskeptical champions of national independence, the Conservatives have become “increasingly beleaguered over the issue,” thereby making it possible for Labour “to use Europe as a way of revitalizing the party's programme and image” (p. 2). He clearly would like to see terminal decline for the Conservatives and continued success for a social democratic Britain in a similarly collectivist Europe.

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