The politics of retrenchment: Twilight in Britain's global role, 1945-1968

In this project, I develop a theoretical framework for the process of great power retrenchment. The specific focus of the study is Britain's extensive network of military bases stretching from the Suez Canal to the Far East after 1945, a network which was commonly termed Britain's "east of Suez" role. My analysis centers on a longitudinal comparison of three transitional periods in post-World War II British foreign policy: the adjustment to a new international strategic landscape after the Second World War, from 1945-1947; the Suez crisis and its aftermath, from 1957-1960; and Britain's severe financial crises from 1966-68. In analyzing these transitional periods, I draw on both primary documents as well as confidential interviews with officials. Among other things, I provide the first comprehensive treatment of the series of secret reviews commissioned after the Suez crisis on Britain's world role. These reviews provide uncommon insight into both leaders' perceptions of a state's international decline and the ways that they attempt to come to grips with it.; My conclusions support two basic arguments. First, I find that flexible, multi-variable theoretical frameworks are necessary to explain dramatic reversals of foreign policy, such as Britain's withdrawal from its military network east of the Suez. Even in this relatively clear-cut case, the standard explanation that relative economic decline convinced, or really forced, British policymakers to retrench is erroneous. I demonstrate that one must analyze the interplay between relative decline, crises, and the domestic coalition-building process to provide a satisfactory explanation of this decision. Moreover, these three variables can be expected to be at work in other cases where great powers choose to withdraw from global networks, be they strategic, colonial, or trade networks. Second, my study underscores the fact that foreign policy decision-making is a path dependent process. In this instance, a streamlining of Britain's foreign policy institutions laid the groundwork for withdrawal by curtailing the influence of the two domestic constituencies with the most to lose from retrenchment, the overseas departments and the military. In essence, an institutional restructuring originally intended to preserve the east of Suez role hastened its demise.