The Prime Minister and numerous other agencies play a role in setting policy, and many institutions and businesses have a voice and a role. The United Kingdom was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries, most notably during the so-called "Pax Britannica"a period of totally unrivaled supremacy and unprecedented international peace during the mid-to-late 1800s.
British dominance of the seas was vital to the formation and maintaining of the British Empire, which was achieved through the support of a navy larger than the next two largest navies combined for the majority of the 19th and early-20th centuries, prior to the entry of the United States into the Second World War in 1941. ===1814–1914=== ===First World War=== ===1920s=== After 1918 Britain was a "troubled giant" that was less of a dominant diplomatic force in the 1920s than before.
The main themes of British foreign policy included a role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919–1920, where Lloyd George worked hard to moderate French demands for revenge on Germany.
British dominance of the seas was vital to the formation and maintaining of the British Empire, which was achieved through the support of a navy larger than the next two largest navies combined for the majority of the 19th and early-20th centuries, prior to the entry of the United States into the Second World War in 1941. ===1814–1914=== ===First World War=== ===1920s=== After 1918 Britain was a "troubled giant" that was less of a dominant diplomatic force in the 1920s than before.
Balancing in Central Europe: Great Britain and Hungary in the 1920s Seah, Daniel.
Britain became an active member of the new League of Nations, but its list of major achievements was slight. Disarmament was high on the agenda, and Britain played a major role following the United States in the Washington Naval Conference of 1921 in working toward naval disarmament of the major powers.
It pursued an alternate role as an active participant in the Cold War against communism, especially as a founding member of NATO in 1949. The British had built up a very large worldwide Empire, which peaked in size in 1922, after more than half a century of unchallenged global supremacy.
He was partly successful, but Britain soon had to moderate French policy toward Germany further, as in the Locarno Treaties of 1925.
The Great Depression starting in 1929 put enormous pressure on the British economy.
The flow of money from New York dried up, and the system of reparations and payment of debt died in 1931. In domestic British politics, the emerging Labour Party had a distinctive and suspicious foreign policy based on pacifism.
By 1933 disarmament agreements had collapsed and the issue became rearming for a war against Germany.
By 1938 it was clear that war was looming, and that Germany had the world's most powerful military.
The final act of appeasement came when Britain and France sacrificed Czechoslovakia to Hitler's demands at the Munich Agreement of September 1938.
Instead of satiation, Hitler menaced Poland, and at last Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain dropped appeasement and stood firm in promising to defend Poland (31 March 1939).
Hitler however cut a deal with Joseph Stalin to divide Eastern Europe (23 August 1939); when Germany did invade Poland in September 1939, Britain and France declared war, and the British Commonwealth followed London's lead. ===Second World War=== ===Postwar=== Economically in dire straits in 1945 (saddled with debt and dealing with widespread destruction of its infrastructure), Britain systematically reduced its overseas commitments.
British dominance of the seas was vital to the formation and maintaining of the British Empire, which was achieved through the support of a navy larger than the next two largest navies combined for the majority of the 19th and early-20th centuries, prior to the entry of the United States into the Second World War in 1941. ===1814–1914=== ===First World War=== ===1920s=== After 1918 Britain was a "troubled giant" that was less of a dominant diplomatic force in the 1920s than before.
Hitler however cut a deal with Joseph Stalin to divide Eastern Europe (23 August 1939); when Germany did invade Poland in September 1939, Britain and France declared war, and the British Commonwealth followed London's lead. ===Second World War=== ===Postwar=== Economically in dire straits in 1945 (saddled with debt and dealing with widespread destruction of its infrastructure), Britain systematically reduced its overseas commitments.
The cumulative costs of fighting two world wars, however, placed a heavy burden upon the home economy, and after 1945 the British Empire rapidly began to disintegrate, with all the major colonies gaining independence.
It pursued an alternate role as an active participant in the Cold War against communism, especially as a founding member of NATO in 1949. The British had built up a very large worldwide Empire, which peaked in size in 1922, after more than half a century of unchallenged global supremacy.
By the mid-to-late 1950s, the UK's status as a superpower was gone in the face of the United States and the Soviet Union.
The country continued to be widely considered a superpower until the Suez crisis of 1956, and this embarrassing incident coupled with the loss of the empire left the UK's dominant role in global affairs to be gradually diminished.
Fourteen British Overseas Territories maintain a constitutional link to the UK, but are not part of the country per se. Britain slashed its involvements in the Middle East after the humiliating Suez Crisis of 1956.
In February 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer the islands to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from the latter in 1965.
The claim includes the island of Diego Garcia used as a joint UK/US military base since the 1970s when the inhabitants were forcibly removed, Blenheim Reef, Speakers Bank and all the other features. There are conflicting claims over the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, controlled by the United Kingdom but claimed by Argentina.
The UK had been a member state of the European Union (and a member of its predecessors) since 1973.
After years of debate (and rebuffs), Britain joined the Common Market in 1973; which became the European Union in 1993.
After years of dispute with France it joined the European Economic Community in 1973, which eventually evolved into the European Union through the Maastricht Treaty twenty years later.
In June 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU. ===21st century=== Foreign policy initiatives of UK governments since the 1990s have included military intervention in conflicts and for peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance programmes and increased aid spending, support for establishment of the International Criminal Court, debt relief for developing countries, prioritisation of initiatives to address climate change, and promotion of free trade.
After years of debate (and rebuffs), Britain joined the Common Market in 1973; which became the European Union in 1993.
The last major colony, Hong Kong, was handed over to China in 1997.
"British foreign policy since 1997 - Commons Library Research Paper RP08/56 (UK House of Commons, 2008) 123pp online Magyarics, Tamas.
Contemporary Military Strategy and the Global War on Terror: US and UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq 2001-2012 (2014) Honeyman, V.
"British foreign policy since 1997 - Commons Library Research Paper RP08/56 (UK House of Commons, 2008) 123pp online Magyarics, Tamas.
"Constructing a ‘great’ role for Britain in an age of austerity: Interpreting coalition foreign policy, 2010–2015." International Relations 29.3 (2015): 303-318. Dickie, John.
Strategy, Diplomacy and UK Foreign Policy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) Leech, Philip, and Jamie Gaskarth.
However it did not merge financially, and kept the pound separate from the Euro, which partly isolated it from the EU financial crisis of 2011.
British foreign policy: the New Labour years (Palgrave, 2011) Daddow, Oliver.
While the 'special relationship' and the question of Britain’s role in Europe have been central to British foreign policy since the Second World War...interventionism was a genuinely new element. The GREAT campaign of 2012 was one of the most ambitious national promotion efforts ever undertaken by any major nation.
The campaign unified many themes and targets, including business meetings; scholarly conventions; recreational vehicle dealers; parks and campgrounds; convention and visitors bureaus; hotels; bed and breakfast inns; casinos; and hotels. In 2013, the government of David Cameron described its approach to foreign policy by saying: For any given foreign policy issue, the UK potentially has a range of options for delivering impact in our national interest.
These include – besides the EU – the UN and groupings within it, such as the five permanent members of the Security Council (the “P5”); NATO; the Commonwealth; the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development; the G8 and G20 groups of leading industrialised nations; and so on. The UK began establishing air and naval facilities in the Persian Gulf, located in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman in 2014–15.
He points out that Britain's December 2014 agreement to open a permanent naval base in Bahrain underlines its gradual re-commitment east of Suez.
The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 highlighted a range of foreign policy initiatives of the UK government.
However, due to the outcome of a 2016 membership referendum, proceedings to withdraw from the EU began in 2017 and concluded when the UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020, and the transition period on 31 December 2020 with an EU trade agreement.
In June 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU. ===21st century=== Foreign policy initiatives of UK governments since the 1990s have included military intervention in conflicts and for peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance programmes and increased aid spending, support for establishment of the International Criminal Court, debt relief for developing countries, prioritisation of initiatives to address climate change, and promotion of free trade.
However, due to the outcome of a 2016 membership referendum, proceedings to withdraw from the EU began in 2017 and concluded when the UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020, and the transition period on 31 December 2020 with an EU trade agreement.
In February 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer the islands to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from the latter in 1965.
On 22 May 2019, the United Nations General Assembly debated and adopted a resolution that affirmed that the Chagos archipelago “forms an integral part of the territory of Mauritius.” The UK does not recognise Mauritius' sovereignty claim over the Chagos Islands.
Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth described the British and American governments as "hypocrites" and "champions of double talk" over their response to the dispute. 2019 – The Persian Gulf crisis escalated in July 2019, when Iranian oil tanker was seized by Britain in the Strait of Gibraltar on the grounds that it was shipping oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.
However, due to the outcome of a 2016 membership referendum, proceedings to withdraw from the EU began in 2017 and concluded when the UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020, and the transition period on 31 December 2020 with an EU trade agreement.
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