British Politics and Foreign Policy in the Age of Appeasement, 1935–39

1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Q. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
British Politics

THE LOCARNO SYSTEM: DECLINE AND BRITISH ATTEMPTS AT MODIFICATION, 1935-1937 (THROUGH THE LENS OF IVAN MAISKY’S "DIPLOMAT’S DIARY")

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-28
Author(s):  
ELENA KHAKHALKINA ◽  
◽  
EVGENY TROITSKIY
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
British Politics ◽  
International Crises ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
European System ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Federation

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.

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

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

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

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.

British Foreign Policy and the Party System

1960 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 635-646
Author(s):  
F. S. Northedge
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Party System ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Party Discipline ◽  
British Foreign Policy ◽  
General Elections ◽  
International Issues ◽  
A Minor

It is a paradox of British politics that, while party discipline is such that no government has to depend on Opposition support in order to pursue the foreign policy of its choice, this very fact has been one reason for the normal consensus on questions of foreign policy between the two front benches. The greater the prospects of Opposition leaders forming the next government the greater the discipline they tend to exert over their ranks, and the more international realities are imposed upon the kind of fantasy-thinking to which a party denied power for many years is especially prone. These tendencies have been notable in British politics since the war; they are likely to continue, given that the Labour Party can control the forces of disruption unleashed by its recent defeat. In the five general elections since the wartime Coalition Government foreign policy issues have not merely occupied a minor role; they have been regarded by party leaders, though not always by the rank and file, as though they were primarily questions of personal qualifications for conducting policies the main outlines of which were not in dispute. At the general election in the autumn of 1959, although disagreements between Government and Opposition had undoubtedly grown since the quiet accords of 1955, the campaign turned, if on international issues at all, on the eligibility of Right or Left to represent the country in negotiations in which the likely British position was largely agreed on both sides. The Leader of the Opposition recognised that this was so, although his explanation for it was that Ministers had been forced to accept Labour's policy recommendations.

Other Countries: Allan W. Cameron: Indochina: Prospects After ‘The End’. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, 1976, 37p., $2.

1979 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 524-534 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
American Enterprise Institute ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Public Policy Research

OTHER COUNTRIES: allan w. cameron: Indochina : Prospects After ‘The End’. OTHER COUNTRIES: chris cook and john ramsden: Eds. Trends in British Politics Since 1945. OTHER COUNTRIES: lloyd s. etheredge: A World of Men : The Private Sources of American Foreign Policy. OTHER COUNTRIES: rhodri jeffreys-jones : American Espionage from Secret Sevice to CIA. OTHER COUNTRIES: k. seshadri: Chile—Travail and Tragedy.

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