The United Kingdom’s Response And Policy To The South Asia Crisis,1971

The1971South Asia crisis was a significant regional crisis during the Cold War transition period, which has not only created a new political landscape in the South Asian subcontinent, but also was an excellent race between the United States and the Soviet Union under the Cold War structure. After the World War II, the United Kingdom was irrevocably a "middle powers ", whose activities in the world diplomacy and international status plummeted sharply compared with19th century. However, the postwar British diplomacy remained features, which could be mainly described as "consistent with the circumstances and never give up any chance to be initiative ". Due to its important strategic and economic significance, The South Asian subcontinent had always been the focus area of the United Kingdom, and its stability or not closely linked with the UK’s overseas interests. Therefore, the1971South Asia crisis naturally attracted the attention of the UK. The paper will be starting from this point of view, mainly focusing on describing the reaction and policy of the United Kingdom during the crisis and intend to analyze the United Kingdom, as a middle power, how to use its sophisticated diplomatic means carefully handling its relationship with the two superpowers---the United States and the Soviet Union, but also continue to maintain its interests and influence in the Third World. The paper argues that realism and national interest were the fundamental guidelines of the British foreign policy. Although the role and status of the United Kingdom in the South Asian crisis were a bit awkward, it still tried to be active in the process of the crisis and firmed its policy change-"from being neutral and non-interference to coming down on the winning side-India". It was determined by its realistic foreign policy.The main body of this paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is an overview of the whole crisis of1971, which contains the background-Pakistan’s internal contradictions and India-Pakistan contradictions, the process of the crisis-from the East Pakistan crisis to the India-Pakistan crisis, as well as its impact-the dismemberment of Pakistan and India’s victory. In addition, the major powers’attitude in the crisis (the United States and China supported Pakistan and the Soviet Union favored India) is also an important part of this chapter.The second chapter focuses on the consideration and policy of the United Kingdom in the early days of the crisis. This chapter first analyzes the consideration of the United Kingdom in the early days of the crisis, including the limited political influence of the UK to the South Asia after World War Ⅱ and its remaining economic interests in this area. The second part introduces the British government’s concern to the crisis, which contains the reports of British Consulate in South Asia and the discussion of the British government about the crisis.The core content of the third chapter discusses the policy change and the impact of the United Kingdom after the escalation of the crisis, which can be divided into two parts. The first part is about the detail changes of British policy after the escalation of the crisis, mainly for the condemnation and the termination of assistance to Pakistan, as well as gradually favoritism to India. The second part is an analysis of the reasons for the changes of British policy, including the pressure of the British domestic public about the East Pakistan’s violence, the comparison of the importance of India and Pakistan to the UK, and its consideration of its relationship with the United State and the Soviet Union in the early1970s.Finally, the paper simply combed British policy in thel971South Asia crisis, and concluded:whether the British government adopted "neutral" policy in the early of the crisis, or take "favoritism" policy to Indian in the escalation of the crisis.the benchmark was based on the national interests of the United Kingdom, and the starting point and the impact point were also its national interests. In addition. This part also provides an overview of the impact of British policies in the South Asian subcontinent countries, as well as the development of its relations with the US and Soviet Union.