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The narrative of 'reform' in Saudi Arabia, recently recurring in British political discourse around the kingdom's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, is situated within wider Orientalist themes, wherein a progressive and modern West is juxtaposed with an Arabian peninsula mired in backwardness. In this context, the purported Arab 'reformer' is presented as the ideal ally of the West, attempting to haul his society up to the West's supposed standards, for example on women's rights. This racialising narrative serves to legitimise British support for authoritarian Gulf regimes, thus helping to sustain the political economy of this set of international relations at the political level. It does this by obscuring the important role the United Kingdom plays in sustaining authoritarianism in the Arabian peninsula by externalising the explanatory focus onto the terrain of cultural difference. This article contributes to the literature on UK relations with the Arab Gulf monarchies by critically analysing the ways in which racialising discourses dovetail with material interests to reinforce and sustain these ties. In doing so, it also contributes to the emerging literatures on 'racial capitalism' and 'race' in international relations, through its exploration of the role of Orientalist discourse in this significant empirical case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Henry VIII’s response to the struggle between János Szapolyai and Ferdinand of Habsburg for the throne of Hungary in the decade following the Ottoman victory at the battle of Mohács in 1526. Hungary’s distinct geopolitical situation as the bulwark against Ottoman expansion into Christendom meant that this civil war was a conflict of international importance. The article situates Henry’s interest in events in Hungary within the wider context of his Great Matter and shows that events in even distant parts of Europe came to occupy an important position in his international strategy. It demonstrates that the pressures placed on Henry VIII as a result of his efforts to obtain the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon led him to support Szapolyai because it promised to divert Habsburg attention away from England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which was concluded in 2020 to deal with the relationship between the European Union (EU) and Great Britain after Brexit. Topics covered include the TCA's obligations relating to labour standards generally and the International Labour Organization (ILO) standards in particular, and the commitment to the freedom of association and its implications for Great Britain.

In the last century, the importance of foreign trade, particularly net exports of goods and services, in achieving balanced and high-quality economic growth has become increasingly apparent. This certainly applies to Turkey. For example, the Eleventh Development Plan prepared for the 2019-2023 period was determined within the framework of a stable, export-based growth model, in which the industrial sector played a dominant role, focusing on productivity. Recently, the new trade regime between Turkey and the United Kingdom after Brexit has been included among the subjects within the agenda of Turkish foreign trade. The present study aims to find the preliminary clues to understand the extent of the recent trade agreement between two countries, which share deep-rooted trade links, in light of the new UK-EU deal. While one of these countries does not want to lose its position as a candidate country, despite the obstacles and disagreements posed by the EU in the negotiation mechanism, the other has managed to leave the EU as a result of a very intense and complex process, that lasted approximately thirty-four months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to provide the first dedicated examination of the pro-Confederate movement in Britain in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation. By analysing the ideas and activities of pro-Confederates after emancipation, the article problematizes our understanding of Civil War diplomacy and British responses to the conflict. Through an analysis of propaganda, and the correspondence between Confederate representatives and British sympathizers, it offers insights into reactions to emancipation among a group who were deeply invested in the conflict. It also explores how southern sympathizers attempted to publicly respond in a way that they hoped would appeal to Britons after 1863. In doing so, it emphasizes the intellectual and organizational vibrancy that characterized pro-Confederates in this period as well as the extent to which emancipation itself did not automatically determine the diplomatic outcome of the conflict. In addition, it demonstrates that Confederate activism in Britain had always rested on shaky ideological foundations. The lack of clear moral distinction between the belligerents prior to emancipation had allowed sympathetic Britons to project their own values on to the Confederacy. The effects of emancipation on southern diplomatic prospects were as much about revealing these internal dynamics as causing a sudden shift in attitudes towards Confederate nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the British government document "Global Britain in a Competitive Age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy" released in 2021. Topics discussed include the role of foreign-policy experts and historian John Bew in the document, plan of the government to expand the nuclear deterrent of Great Britain as stated in the document, and the approach of the document to national security.

Against a backdrop of pressing economic and strategic concerns shaping British policies after the Second World War, Field Marshal Lord Montgomery, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, embarked on an official tour of Africa in November-December 1947. He visited South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt, as well as other African territories. Montgomery's controversial report and the reactions to it cast light on British attitudes towards and perceptions of her African empire in the immediate postwar period, as shaped by Labour government defence and developmental policies. At the same time, it invites reconsideration of Montgomery's place in imperial and military historiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article re-examines the civil war (1963-1976) between the Sultanate of Oman and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman (PFLO), particularly the U.K.'s support of the government. Using archival evidence and private papers, it argues that the counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign's image as "population-centric" is flawed, and that the British and Omani governments relied more on military measures against the PFLO to recapture Dhofar province than on the "hearts and minds" and civil development programmes emphasised in traditional accounts. It counsels against using Dhofar as a possible example of indirect military assistance in contemporary COIN, arguing that the conflict's specific historical characteristics may not be replicated now or in the immediate future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg is New Zealand's outstanding military leader. But that pedestal was nearly never constructed. Within the first hundred days following Winston Churchill unexpectedly becoming the British prime minister on 10 May 1940, his long friendship with Freyberg was renewed and then severely tested. The new prime minister, who was his own defence minister, wanted Freyberg -- throughout the Second World War a British Army general and a Conservative Party candidate for the next British general election -- close by him. During the Battle of Britain he even toyed with the idea of giving Freyberg a substantial military role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thinking back, it could be argued that Britain was preparing to leave the European Union almost as soon as it joined in 1973. Within two years, opposition to membership led Prime Minister Harold Wilson to call a referendum. The public voted overwhelmingly to stay. But the honeymoon was short-lived. For Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Brexit was all about getting sovereignty back. The United Kingdom would take back control of its money, borders, laws and waters. But as the detail of the recent treaty is examined, his claims may turn out to be as vacuous as Chamberlain's 'peace in our time' proclamations. Cracks are already appearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis explores the shifting definitions of what constituted a diplomat in post-Second World War Britain. Post-war women's liberation generated unique dilemmas for Foreign Office recruiters: whilst reluctant to employ women on equal terms with men, they nonetheless fell under pressure to demonstrate that Britain's self-styled international reputation as a vanquisher of Nazi tyranny and oppression applied to women's employment. Women were admitted to the Diplomatic Service in 1946 on the basis that arguments in favour of women diplomats complemented and even enhanced Foreign Office attempts to model itself as a bastion of equal opportunity, fairness, and, later, 'meritocracy'. This analysis explores internal Foreign Office debates about the employment of women diplomats after the Second World War, but it also makes a related argument about the value of 'organisation history' and what a study of Foreign Office culture can reveal about the society in which is operated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of modern British foreign policy largely devolves from an exclusively male perspective. In many respects, this was natural and appropriate because, until the 1940s, only men held senior positions in the Diplomatic Service. During the early twentieth century, attempts to change the "Foreign Office mind" to promote a greater acceptance of the role of women in the conduct and formulation of British diplomacy remained largely resisted. However, when examining the careers of the other group of women who worked at the Foreign Office, the clerical staff, the vast ranks of filing clerks, and shorthand typists, a very different view of this bastion of male conservatism emerges. With prosopography and on-line genealogy resources, this analysis traces a large cross-section of these women and analyses their life patterns and working experiences. It reveals that many of these women enjoyed quite a flexible working experience, with plenty of opportunities for career advancement, with some even transferring from the clerical classes to the Consular Service. This exegesis represents the first attempt to use prosoprographic techniques in the study of British foreign policy and suggests other ways to expand the present study and other similar projects undertaken to examine other government departments concerned with foreign affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses several articles published within issue on topics discussed at fourth series of meetings, titled ‘Turkey and Britain, from Enemies to Allies', which was organized on September 26–27, 2019 by the British Institute at Ankara and Koc University.

This analysis challenges the traditional approach to studying the creation of foreign policy within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office [FCO]. Whilst most historical and contemporary research has focused upon the role of the foreign secretary, permanent under-secretary, and senior overseas representatives, this exegesis argues that an overlooked department – the Policy Planning Staff and its contemporary successor, the Policy Unit – has had significant influence over the debate and direction of British foreign policy. Drawing upon documents received under the Freedom of Information Act, archival documents, and interviews conducted with current and previous members of the Staff and the wider FCO, it reveals the rationale for the planning department, its roles, structure, staffing, and influence on foreign policy over time. It concludes that the department has been, and remains, a crucial part of the policy-making process and, therefore, warrants further attention from historians and those interested in contemporary foreign policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis explores the history and structure of the archive of the Edwardian Foreign Office. It uses data and quantitative research methodology to address two crucial questions. What survives within the collection? And what can historians and others find using the regular discovery tools such as indexes and catalogues? It concludes by looking at how these processes shape the ways historians are using this collection; and in doing so, it provides a crucial new context for any historians using this hugely important source and poses some challenging questions about the nature of archival research methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the centenary of the Paris Peace Conference, the lecture explores Britain's pivotal role in the development of a rules-based global order. It reveals how Britons fashioned the practices and norms of new international institutions, including the League of Nations, to manage relations between states, markets, and civil society. The lecture uncovers why economic, social, and environmental issues took on as much importance as the more familiar concerns of border protection and weapons' control. It draws on the correspondence of key internationalists, including women and student activists, who wanted to institutionalize global order in a way that advanced the needs of women, children, and the family as the concern of global security, and shows how preference was given to business groups and central bankers. The lecture exposes the connected history of the First World War with the global order forged to build peace, underlining the important role of the blockade, and the multilateral relationships it engendered. It reveals how British dominance after 1919 encouraged it to use the League of Nations a multilateral hub to manage Britain's relations with Europe and with its empire, and the legacy of this history for international relations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit has a habit of rendering research redundant rapidly. Since I wrote 'Brexit and EU Legitimation: Martyr for the EU Cause?' (published in New Perspectives vol. 27 [3]), Boris Johnson has won a large majority on the back of his promise to 'Get Brexit Done' and his ability to pass a withdrawal agreement. As such the chances of a no-deal Brexit have receded (for now). This has not rendered my analysis obsolete, but reflecting upon Johnson's slogan has led me to realise that my analysis could be broadened. In this addendum, I flesh out what is left ambiguous in the article and develop a more holistic framework for analysing the discursive effects of Brexit. In doing so, I make the argument that for the European Union (EU), Brexit will never be 'done', at least for the EU. Instead, Britain's fortunes look set to become a bellwether for soft Eurosceptics considering turning hard. The extent to which Britain is perceived to bask in the 'sunlit uplands' or, conversely, to suffer economic and/or political disaster as a consequence of leaving the EU will inform whether Britain is used as a 'model' or a 'martyr' at any given time. Thus, Britain's fortunes have thus become inextricably linked to the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the relationship between South Africa (SA) and the United Kingdom (UK) in the post-Brexit era. An overview of the history of the SA-UK relationship until the negotiation of the SACU + M-UK agreement in 2019 is provided. At least two scenarios in a post-Brexit UK-European Union trade relationship are analysed and their implications for SA-UK relations are discussed. The article explores the question: will the post-Brexit period be characterised by an increasingly aggressive Britain striving to re-assert its power in the world, or shall the world see a new idealist Britain seeking to increase cooperation in its own region and globally? The article argues that South Africa should expect the first scenario but also prepare to influence the UK towards the second scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses economic relations between the United Kingdom and other countries of the Commonwealth in the long term. While looking at past relations between these countries, it also provides some guidance on the prospects of future engagement consequent upon the UK exiting the European Union. The article concludes that although Commonwealth trade is unlikely to replace European trade, such trade will in all likelihood grow in the future, which could help to enhance the UK's links with other countries outside Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the 1935–1936 Abyssinian crisis and the 1938 Munich conference, Britain's interests in the Balkans and its relationship with other Great Powers limited British policy towards Yugoslavia. This analysis points to a higher level of British influence in Belgrade in the mid-1930s than is usually recognised in the historiography and argues that by not responding adequately to security challenges in the Balkans after the withdrawal of French influence from the region, Britain contributed to a power-vacuum for Germany to fill. As the British position in Southeastern Europe weakened after summer 1936 due to advancing Italian and German penetration, Yugoslavia's importance grew in the eyes of Foreign Office officials. However, Britain's position in Belgrade eroded to such a degree by late 1938 that Yugoslavia was no longer willing or able to offer any assistance in the event of war. This examination provides a better understanding of Britain's interests in Southeastern Europe by highlighting the geo-strategic importance of Yugoslavia and the Balkans as a buffer zone to Central Europe and a flank of Britain's Mediterranean routes when the balance of power in the continent was disturbed to British disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do states enter into treaties? In literature on the investment treaty regime, the dominant answer is that investment treaties provide credible commitments to foreign investors. This narrative provides valuable insights but cannot account for the historical origins of the treaties, where drafters explicitly decided to exclude "strong" dispute settlement provisions. Unlike modern-day investment treaties, the early investment treaty regime did not allow investors to file claims against host states through investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Using historical evidence from three major capital-exporting states—the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany—the article shows that this was a conscious design choice. Rather than providing formal dispute settlement, sanctions, and penalties to make credible commitments, Western states intended investment treaties to serve as salient focal points for the informal resolution of investment disputes. The substantive obligations were expected to fulfil their coordinating role without the shadow of judicialized dispute settlement. The argument is not just of historical interest but has broader implications for literature on international economic law dominated by the credible commitment narrative, as well as the current political backlash against ISDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the possible effects of Brexit to Great Britain's environmental policy. Also cited are the uncertainties in the trading relationship between Great Britain and European Union (EU) after Brexit implementation, the nature of the British environmental governance architecture, and how Great Britain will cooperate in global environmental regimes.

This article explores early British Christian-humanitarianism towards the Greeks following the 1822 Chios Massacre. Scholars of the Greek revolution have previously acknowledged the massacre as a pivotal moment for British attitudes towards the Greeks, although few have elaborated significantly on this humanitarian shift. This article focuses on what the massacre was and public and political reactions to it in Britain. It also investigates how perceptions of 'Christian' Greeks, compared to 'Islamic' and 'barbarian' Ottomans, encouraged British sympathy. Essentially it argues that the massacre 'humanized' the Greeks to the British, leading to an early type of Christian-humanitarian intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of debates about the UK's ability to design and implement grand strategy or effective regional strategies, this article examines the nature, coherence and effectiveness of Britain's recent re-engagement with Southeast Asia. The article makes three main arguments. First, British re-engagement vis-à-vis Southeast Asia has been multi-dimensional in character with an emphasis on defence and economic diplomacy, alongside efforts to achieve a separate new dialogue partnership with ASEAN. Second, the recent notable increase in the Royal Navy's presence in Southeast Asia and the surrounding region not only reflects the "Global Britain" narrative of Conservative [End Page 329] Party policymakers, but also builds on more longstanding security and alliance considerations and institutional support that preceded the June 2016 Brexit referendum. Third, while British strategizing and policies may in the longer term yield the outcomes the UK wants, the effectiveness of the country's re-engagement for now is to some extent in question. In particular, UK policymakers and officials continue to struggle in taking forward and convincingly communicating an integrated and aligned strategy vis-à-vis Southeast Asia that is embedded in a wider regional approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union has ramifications beyond the UK and the EU. This article analyses the impact of the Brexit referendum on the UK's political capital in the United Nations Security Council; a dimension of Brexit that has received little attention thus far. Drawing on extensive elite interviews we show that the UK has considerable political capital in the Council, where it is seen as one of the most effective actors, but the reputational costs of Brexit are tarnishing this image. With case-studies on the UK's role in Somalia and Yemen we show how the UK has been able to further its interests with dual roles in the EU and Security Council, and the risks posed by tensions between trade and human rights after Brexit. We also analyse what it takes to be influential within the Security Council and argue that more attention should be paid to the practices of diplomacy. Influence is gained via penholding, strong diplomatic skill and a well-regarded UN permanent representative. The UK accrues political capital as a leader on the humanitarian and human rights side of the Council's agenda, but this reputation is at risk as it exits the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have explored the importance of public opinion in British foreign policy decision-making, especially when it comes to the UK's relations with the United States and the European Union. Despite its importance, there is a dearth of research on public opinion about British foreign policy towards other major players in the international system, such as emerging powers like China. We have addressed this knowledge gap by conducting a public opinion survey in the UK after the Brexit referendum. Our research findings indicate that the British public at large finds China's rise disconcerting, but is also pragmatic in its understanding of how the ensuing bilateral relations should be managed. More importantly, our results show that views on China are clearly split between the two opposing Brexit identities. Those who subscribe strongly to the Leave identity, measured by their aversion to the EU and antipathy towards immigration, are also more likely to hold negative perceptions of Chinese global leadership and be more suspicious of China as a military threat. In contrast, those who espouse a Remain identity—that is, believe that Britain would be better served within the EU and with more immigrants—are more likely to prefer closer engagement with China and to have a more positive outlook overall on China's place within the global community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural efforts to mobilise populations behind the war in Britain and its Dominions, Canada and Australia – especially through the exhibition of war trophies – solidified after the Armistice into state-supported institutions creating and promoting a culture of victory. This culture was most pronounced, and most centralised, in Australia. Wartime propaganda institutions grew into national war museums which effectively froze the victorious national war effort, and the moment of triumph, in three-dimensional form. The institutions, and the people who ran them, did not demobilise with the peace. These museums used substantially the same objects and techniques they had used in wartime to support the war effort to create a postwar narrative in which victory established a clear (and martial) national identity, and also justified the war itself. At the same time, the narrative of a British imperial victory was used to create claims of unity which denied the reality of divisions in society. Trophies wrested from wartime enemies were used as pride-inducing objects to fundraise for peace, and fashioned into war memorials that were at once sites of mourning and monuments celebrating military dominance. Visions of postwar peace and progress could not be disentangled from victory and the violence that enabled it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis explores British perceptions and roles regarding the negotiation of the West German-Soviet Moscow treaty of 1970. Whilst supportive of West German Ostpolitik, Britain has received a very marginal role in the historiography of the treaty. By exploring the consultation process in the so-called Bonn Group of the United States, Britain, France, and West Germany, this exegesis explains that Britain played a leading role in building consensus and forming schemes to resolve the issue of the treatment of Quadripartite Rights and Responsibilities concerning Berlin in the Moscow treaty package. As background, this essay also explains the policies of the Harold Wilson's Labour government and Edward Heath's Conservative government regarding European détente in Europe, including West German Ostpolitik. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After three frustrating years of fruitless efforts to convince the United Kingdom (UK) to end the conflict in Rhodesia, Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda and his United National Independence Party (UNIP) embarked on a different foreign relations course in late 1968 which lasted through the end of 1973. During this five-year span, Kaunda and his UNIP colleagues attempted to assert African agency in order to build an international alliance which would apply diplomatic and economic pressure for peace and justice in southern Africa. Kaunda felt emboldened to pursue a high-profile diplomatic agenda through active participation in multilateral organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). An important aspect of Kaunda's alliance-building strategy was seeking support from the administration of Richard Nixon in the United States of America (USA). From 1968 to 1973, Kenneth Kaunda launched a diplomatic offensive in hopes of asserting African agency and attaining top-level participation by the USA in a broad alliance to promote peace and racial equality in southern Africa; however, Richard Nixon did not share Kaunda's priorities regarding southern Africa nor his faith in international organisations and rejected his efforts out of hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, Britain's attitude towards Nigerians' voluntary enlistment as combatants during the Second World War is studied. The historical method is deployed to interrogate previously untapped archival sources on the subject. Against the conventional wisdom, this micro-study posits Britain's rebuff of Nigerians' voluntary enlistment in order to preserve white supremacy by not arming and deploying Africans to fight Europeans. Nigerians protested the British treatment of the war as a white man's war in which Africans had no significant role to play. Pressure on British manpower necessitated a policy reversal. Conscription was, thus, not due to Africans' refusal to fight for Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do UK policymakers mean when they say that Britain's strategic environment is returning to "multipolarity"? In realist international theory, polarity is a specific causal concept; the number of powers capable of balancing even the most capable other state(s) in the international system ("poles") is taken to determine the system's stability. Does the post-2017 appearance of polarity references in British security policy documents therefore reflect some unexpected UK renaissance of realist thought? Or is something else going on, as recent work by Ben Zala suggests? This article will demonstrate that, while UK official usage of the "multip–" word has indeed flourished recently, the term is actually being used in a more elastic, less bounded way than realism prescribes in order to generate other kinds of political effect. Specifically, "polarity" (and its "multi-" prefix) is used to characterise the behaviour of those major states that oppose Western-preferred international order, to elide Britain's own relative power/status tensions, and to capture an expansive laundry-list of perceived international dangers. The article then discusses five ways in which a shift in polarity could negatively affect Britain; important consequences that merit preparatory contemplation, yet that an imprecise, catch-all understanding of "multipolarity" too readily obscures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nüzhet Sabit was a typical Ottoman intellectual of the Second Constitutional Period(19081918). He distinguished foreign politics from domestics politics, and discussed them separately in his articles. When the Constitution was restored in 1908, the Young Turks intended to establish friendly relations with both France and England. Towards Germany, which had supported Abdülhamid II, on the other hand, they had a more distanced attitude. In time this preference changed, and Germany was once more seen as an ally. The break-out of World War I, however, forced the heads of the Ottoman State to take sides. Eventually, it joined the alliance led by Germany and stayed in this group until the end of the war, which it would conclude in defeat for them. In this article as an opponent intellectual and journalist Nüzhet Sabit's views are explained about the foreign policy of Committee of Union and Progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The connection between Aboriginal people and the British Crown is well established. Less understood is their appreciation of, and reliance on, British democratic traditions in their politics. Drawing on the archive of Aboriginal activist, William Cooper, this article explores the way he used the language and practices associated with British democracy to advance his political claims in interwar Australia. With Protestant Christianity, Britishness represented a cluster of values and attributes which Cooper claimed as the Aborigines' own. In drawing on an 'imperial ideology of democracy', he was part of a global black political renaissance characteristic of the times demanding justice, freedom and representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the imperial socialisation of young consular officials and how they were prepared for their role as intermediaries between Britain and China. Drawing on private papers and public archives, it uses the career of one such official to analyse the processes which took place when they joined the China Consular Service and how their evolving mentality reflected and further shaped its collective mind. It argues that such officials learned to develop a cultural sensitivity towards China which would be key to their ability to forge the collaborative relationships that underpinned the British presence. Whilst it is generally acknowledged that that presence was marked by an unquestioning belief in the imperial mission, there has been less focus on how that sensitivity enabled Britain to maintain its dominant position in China until the outbreak of the First World War. The article argues that, although that sensitivity was self-serving, and notwithstanding the unequal treaties, it derived from a genuine interest in and sympathy for the country which was instilled into officials from the outset of their careers. However, those elements also helped perpetuate the degradation of China's sovereignty during this period. To understand how this took place and why China continues to characterise the period as 'the century of humiliation', we need first to explore how that sensitivity, with its underlying ambiguities and tensions, was forged and sustained as part of the mind-set of the consular service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British strategic foreign policy was in disarray between 1932 and 1934, when Japan was the major concern for British strategic planners. Japan's challenge to British interests affected British policy generally, and particularly Anglo-American relations. British departments had differing views: the Treasury preferred improved Anglo-Japanese relations, the Admiralty wanted a fleet sufficiently large to deal with both Japan and Europe, and the Foreign Office rejected the Treasury's position as naïve, preferring to work with the United States to check Japan as much as possible. The cut and thrust among the various departments underlined the matter's complexity and the difficulty of deciding British policy at this juncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]