[PDF] British Public Opinion On Foreign And Defence Policy eBook

Author : Ben Clements
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 418 pages
File Size : 11,28 MB
Release : 2018-12-07
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1351814257

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This book provides a long-term perspective on the opinions of the British public on foreign and defence policy in the post-war era. Thematically wide-ranging, it looks at the broader role of foreign and defence policy in British politics and elections, public opinion towards Britain’s key international relationships and alliances (the United States, NATO, the EU and the Commonwealth), and public opinion towards the projection of ‘soft power’ (overseas aid) and ‘hard power’ (defence spending, nuclear weapons and military intervention). Assessing the main areas of change and continuity in the public’s views, it also pays close attention to the dividing lines in wider society over foreign and defence policy. Analysing an extensive range of surveys and opinion polls, the book situates the analysis in the wider context of Britain’s changing foreign policy role and priorities in the post-war era, as well as linking public opinion with the politics of British external policy – the post-war consensus on Britain’s overseas role, historical and contemporary areas of inter-party debate, and enduring intra-party divides. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of British politics, European politics, foreign policy analysis, public opinion, defence and security studies and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.

Author : Robert Self
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 325 pages
File Size : 44,69 MB
Release : 2022-06-16
Category : History
ISBN : 1000600238

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This book explores the process by which defence policy is made in contemporary Britain and the institutions, actors and conflicting interests which interact in its inception and continuous reformulation. Rather than dealing with the substance of defence policy, this study focuses upon the institutional actors involved in this process. This is a subject which has commanded far more interest from public, Parliament, government and the armed forces since the protracted, bloody and ultimately unsuccessful British military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The work begins with a discussion of two contextual factors shaping policy. The first relates to the impact of Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the United States over defence and intelligence matters, while the second considers the impact of Britain’s relatively disappointing economic performance upon the funding of British defence since 1945. It then goes on to explore the role and impact of all the key policy actors, from the Prime Minister, Cabinet and core executive, to the Ministry of Defence and its relations with the broader ‘Whitehall village’, and the Foreign Office and Treasury in particular. The work concludes by examining the increasing influence of external policy actors and forces, such as Parliament, the courts, political parties, pressure groups and public opinion. This book will be of much interest to students of British defence policy, security studies, and contemporary military history.

Author : David Vital
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 37,55 MB
Release : 2021-11-21
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1000478092

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How is foreign policy made? Who makes it? To what conscious and unconscious influences are policy-makers subject? What is distinctive about the immensely complex process as it unfolds in Britain? And what, therefore, is distinctive and characteristic about Britain’s foreign policy today? Who in Britain, has the decisive word? Why is the Foreign Office the king-pin of the system? Why does Parliament count for so little? Does public opinion count at all? Originally published in 1968, these are some of the questions which this book considers in the course of a tightly argued but very readable analysis. Some had been considered on their own elsewhere, but this study represented the first attempt by a contemporary political scientist to pull together, in brief compass, all the relevant threads – including the constitutional, the political, the institutional and the sociological. It is done, moreover, on the basis of a sharp assessment of the type of foreign policy problem that most notably confronted Britain at the time. The author has been successively journalist, official of the Israel Government, and university lecturer in politics. Throughout, his special interests and activities have been in the sphere of international affairs and it was while teaching International Relations at the University of Sussex that he wrote this book. He combines the experience of one who has seen the policy being made from the inside with the theoretical insight of the political scientist; he assesses with a sympathetic but unemotional detachment the constraints on the formation of British foreign policy.

Author : Marc Nikolas Liehr
Publisher : diplom.de
Page : 109 pages
File Size : 30,90 MB
Release : 2004-02-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 3832477551

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Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: Is Great Britain really a desperate European? This was the question in mind whilst writing this essay. Would Britain go to war against Iraq with the United States of America, or would it search for a peaceful solution together with old Europe within the United Nations. The answer to this question is well known today. The UK decided to wage war on Iraq together with America. Once again Britain gave its continental European partners the feeling to be more the fifty-first state of America than a member of the European Union, trying to find a common European position in foreign and security policy. Why does the UK behave the way it does? Is it really taking a reluctant position against an ever increasing importance of the EU in foreign and security affairs? What is it about its relationship to the US, and which role does the Commonwealth play in this area traditionally the domain of sovereign national politics? The essay examining these questions will come to an astonishing conclusion. At the moment Britain is celebrating its 30th anniversary of EU membership. This should be an occasion to find out more about its foreign and defence policy. At the time of writing, Britain was the only European power coupled with the US in preparing for a war against Iraq. The question has to be asked as to why Britain has adopted such a pro-American stance? Since Blair's election to power in 1997, time and time again he has emphasized that Britain's future is in Europe. However, certainly with regard to foreign and defence policy, such a statement appears hollow. What happened with those honourable aims of European integration like a Common Foreign and Security Policy, which was established as a 'pillar' of the EU by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Finding an agreed European Common and Foreign Policy certainly has not been obtained and could even be said to be in its worst state ever. Nothing illustrated this better than the diversity of opinion within the EU concerning the possible war with Iraq. Italy and Spain tended towards the position of the US and Britain. France wanted to formulate a new UN resolution before deciding the course of action they wish to take. Germany stood against the use of any force. At present, it would seem that the CFSP remains an objective to be realised at a later date. Past and present, none of the other EU members act as closely with the US as Britain. Is Britain's policy influenced by American interests [...]

Author : Andreas Rose
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 542 pages
File Size : 28,46 MB
Release : 2017-05-01
Category : History
ISBN : 1785335790

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Prior to World War I, Britain was at the center of global relations, utilizing tactics of diplomacy as it broke through the old alliances of European states. Historians have regularly interpreted these efforts as a reaction to the aggressive foreign policy of the German Empire. However, as Between Empire and Continent demonstrates, British foreign policy was in fact driven by a nexus of intra-British, continental and imperial motivations. Recreating the often heated public sphere of London at the turn of the twentieth century, this groundbreaking study carefully tracks the alliances, conflicts, and political maneuvering from which British foreign and security policy were born.

Author : Patrick Kyba
Publisher : Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 47,60 MB
Release : 1983-03-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0889207380

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This book constitutes a major and comprehensive reevaluation of British defence policy in the early 1930s.The author traces the evolution of British opinion toward rearmament, from opposition to approval, between 1931 and 1935 and assesses the impact of this opinion on the formation of the Government's defence policy. He places public opinion among the many factors which determined the extent and timing of British rearmament during this period and concludes that the leaders of those Governments were not "Guilty Men" who let political considerations overrule their responsibility for national security, but rather prudent men who decided on rearmament before it was publicly acceptable. Documented from such sources as newspaper editorials, cabinet papers, speeches of Members of Parliament, and results of by-elections, the book will be of interest to historians, students of policy decisions and public opinion, and persons interested in the events leading to World War II.

Author : John Baylis
Publisher :
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 33,4 MB
Release : 1989
Category : Political Science
ISBN :

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This study of British defence policy argues that a "one-off" defence review is not enough but a regular process of defece reviews every five years provide a long-term strategic direction which, the author maintains, is lacking at present.

Author : Jeremy Black
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 38,10 MB
Release : 2016-05-13
Category : History
ISBN : 1317154266

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It was during the course of the eighteenth century that Britain's status as a major maritime and commercial power was forged, shaping the political, economic and military policies of the nation for the next two centuries. Starting from a relatively minor role in global affairs before 1700, Britain rapidly rose to become a significant player in European affairs, and leading imperial power by 1800. In this commanding contribution to the subject, Jeremy Black draws on his extensive expertise to examine how British political culture and public debate in this period responded to, and in part shaped, this transition to an increasingly prominent role in world affairs. Rather than offering a familiar narrative of Britain's eighteenth-century foreign policy, this book instead focuses upon how this policy was debated and written about in British society. Taking as a central theme the debate over policy and the development of public culture and politics, the study explores how these were linked to developing relations with Europe and helped shape colonial strategies and expectations. It highlights how widely shared concerns about such issues as national defence, the strength of the Royal Navy and trade protection, presented little consensus in how they were to be realised and were the subject of fierce public debate. The book underlines how these kinds of issues were not considered in the abstract, but in terms of a political community that was divided over a series of key issues. By probing the problems and issues surrounding the need to define and discuss Britain's foreign policy in semi-public and public contexts, this book offers a fascinating insight into questions of perceived national interest, and how this developed and evolved over the course of the eighteenth century. This work complements the author's other studies by joining the institutional focus seen there to a wider assessment of public politics and print culture, and as such will make a central contribution to studies of eighteenth-century Britain and Europe.