Britain and the World in the Twentieth Century

This account looks at all the main phases of British foreign policy from the 1890s to the 1990s.

It pays attention to such major events as the Boer War, appeasement, and the Suez Crisis, but it looks well beyond traditional diplomacy, taking in strategic, technological, economic, and ideological factors, as well as examining the rise of propaganda agencies and the intelligence community.

The Empire and Commonwealth, relations with major allies, and rivalries with Germany and Russia all receive attention but so too do domestic influences on policy - party politics, bureaucratic rivalries in Whitehall and the persistent British desire for peace and order as the way to maximize trade and investments and secure wealth and social stability at home.