British World Policy and the Projection of Global Power, c.1830–1960

A fundamental truth about British power in the nineteenth century and beyond was that Britain was a global power. Her international position rested on her global economic, naval and political presence; and her foreign policy operated on a global scale. This volume throws into sharp relief the material elements of British power, but also its less tangible components, from Britain's global network of naval bases to the vast range of intersecting commercial, financial and intelligence relationships, which reinforced the country's political power. Leading historians reshape the scholarly debate surrounding the nature of British global power at a crucial period of transformation in international politics, and in so doing they deepen our understanding of the global nature of British power, the shifts in the international landscape from the high Victorian period to the 1960s, and the changing nature of the British state in this period.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: British world policy and the White Queen's memory T. G. Otte; 2. The War Trade Intelligence Department and British economic warfare during the First World War John Robert Ferris; 3. The British empire and the meaning of 'minimum force necessary' in colonial counter-insurgencies operations, c.1857–1967 David French; 4. Yokohama for the British in the late nineteenth century: a hub for imperial defence and a node of influence for change T. G. Otte; 5. 'The diplomatic digestive organ': the Foreign Office as the nerve-centre of foreign policy, c. 1800–1940 T. G. Otte; 6. Financial and commercial networks between Great Britain and South America during the long nineteenth century Kathleen Burk; 7. Britain through Russian eyes: 1900–1914 Dominic Lieven; 8. Imperial Germany's naval challenge and the renewal of British power John H. Maurer; 9. Views of war, 1914 and 1939: second thoughts Zara Steiner; 10. The ambassadors, 1919–1939 Erik Goldstein; 11. The tattered ties that bind: the imperial general staff and the dominions, 1919–1939 Douglas E. Delaney; 12. Seeking a family consensus?: Anglo-Dominion relations and the failed Imperial Conference of 1941 Kent Fedorowich; 13. Imperial hubs and their limitations: British assessments of imposing sanctions on Japan, 1937 G. Bruce Strang.

About the Author :
T. G. Otte is Professor of Diplomatic History at the University of East Anglia. Among his latest books are July Crisis: The World's Descent into War, Summer 1914 (2014), The Age of Anniversaries: The Cult of Commemoration, 1895-1925 (ed., 2018) and Statesman of Europe: A Life of Sir Edward Grey (forthcoming).

Review :
‘… a valuable addition to the literature on Britain’s world-power century. Its twin themes are the almost infinite complexities of Britain’s accumulated commitments as a global power, and the advantages conferred by its (and especially London’s) role as the hub of global communications for much of the nineteenth century and a good part of the twentieth.’ John Darwin, The English Historical Review