Britain, Detente and Changing East-West Relations

by White,Brian

• ISBN13: 9780415078412
• ISBN10: 0415078415
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-03-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Britain, Detente and Changing East-West Relationsexamines the role of Britain in East-West relations since the end of World War II. While recent studies have focused on the contribution of Britain to the Cold War, this book is the first to provide a detailed analysis of the contribution of successive British governments to the development of East-West detente, a historical process that Brian White believes had its origins in the early postwar period. Brian White places particular emphasis on Britain's central role as the catalyst of detente in the 1950s and early 1960s, and its later role in the revival of detente during the 1980s. He concludes that the failure to adapt effectively to the changing patterns of East-West relations from the 1960s onwards led to the gradual decline of British influence. Detailed and comprehensive, this book provides both an important revaluation of Britain's role in the post-war world and an invaluable case study in foreign policy formation andexecution.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction	p. 1
The concept of detente	p. 16
The uses of detente	p. 19
Detente and related concepts	p. 26
Detente as an analytical term	p. 30
Britain, the cold war and detente	p. 35
Britain as a catalyst of detente	p. 50
The Geneva summit	p. 55
Macmillan and detente	p. 58
The Berlin crisis and Macmillan's visit to Moscow	p. 61
'Damage-limitation' after the Paris summit	p. 63
British attitudes towards detente	p. 65
Adapting to bipolarity: from power to influence	p. 71
The domestic imperatives hypothesis	p. 74
Britain and the Partial Test Ban Treaty	p. 81
The test ban issue: from Bravo to Geneva	p. 83
The test ban negotiations 1958-60	p. 84
The test ban negotiations 1961-63	p. 89
The Moscow talks	p. 93
The British contribution to the test ban treaty	p. 95
The partial test ban treaty and detente	p. 105
The decline of British influence on East-West relations	p. 108
Britain and the Vietnam war	p. 109
Britain and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty	p. 114
Britain and European security	p. 120
British attitudes towards detente	p. 124
British policy and structural changes	p. 130
The domestic political context	p. 133
Britain, the new cold war and detente	p. 136
The first Thatcher government and the new cold war	p. 140
The second Thatcher government and detente	p. 143
The third Thatcher government and structural changes in East-West relations	p. 149
British attitudes towards detente	p. 154
The domestic political context	p. 157
A British conception of detente	p. 162
Detente and traditional diplomacy	p. 165
Detente, deterrence and defence	p. 169
Detente and globalism	p. 171
Detente and pragmatism	p. 173
Conclusion	p. 177
The significance of British detente policy	p. 177
An explanation of British detente policy	p. 180
Britain and East-West relations in the 1990s	p. 182
Notes	p. 188
Bibliography	p. 191
Index	p. 199
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