The collapse of British foreign policy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3725264 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William Wallace (0000-0002-4752-7956, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 81 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 53-68 |
| Publication date | 2005-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2005.00438.x |
| OpenAlex | W1980651807 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 3 |
British foreign policy has tried to balance between the United States and continental Europe for the past half-century, with an unambiguous commitment to a special relationship with Washington and an ambiguous commitment to European integration. New Labour has followed its predecessors in this, claiming that Britain can act as a bridge between America and Europe, or as a pivot around which transatlantic relations turn. In the wake of the Iraq war, deepened scepticism in Washington about whether close European cooperation is in America's interest, and scepticism across continental Europe that Britain can or should act as a privileged interlocuteur, have undermined both ends of the bridge on which British foreign policy claims to rest. The end of US commitment to Atlanticism, together with post-Cold War divergence between US and European interests and values, should have led to a shift in British priorities towards closer cooperation with other major European states and-from that shared perspective-an attempt to reconstruct a more balanced transatlantic relationship. The EU presents a sadly weak framework for such a strategy; but Britain's domestic debate, in which this government-like its predecessors-has allowed a Eurosceptic press to shape the language of foreign policy, has made it more difficult for any government to change direction. Recent government speeches on foreign policy, however, suggest that ministers still cling to the illusion that Britain has a 'unique' position between Europe and the United States
Economic history · Foreign policy · Political science · Politics · History · Law · Political Systems and Governance · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Scottish History and National Identity
The US, BREXIT and Anglo-American relations
Exemplary ‘friends and allies’? Unpacking UK–US relations in the early twenty-first century
Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and the Eurosceptic Tradition in Britain
The bridge that Blair built
Celebrating the Mayflower
America, Brexit and the security of Europe
Rethinking Britain's Role in the World for a New Decade
The Declining Theoretical and Practical Utility of ‘Bandwagoning’
Wilson, Callaghan and the management of Anglo-American relations, 1974-1976
The Atlantic as a vector of uneven and combined development
Germany and the Art of Coalition Building
Atlantic Dreams and European Realities
The Politics of Loss in British Foreign Policy
In Search of Lost Time
Popular geopolitics and political memoir
| Citations per year | 0.79 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2007 - 2026 (20) |
| Highly cited | No |