ABSTRACT
An important assumption made throughout this study is that there has been a consistent set of attitudes towards détente, which has underpinned British East-West policy since the 1950s. This chapter begins by drawing together the elements of the British approach, where necessary identifying changes of emphasis over time. This is followed by a more detailed attempt to locate British attitudes within a longer-term historical context to test the proposition that an explanation of British policy requires some understanding of the sources of these attitudes. Finally, we deal here with an important issue that was identified in the introductory chapter: namely, whether these attitudes can be said to constitute a British conception of détente and the extent to which they challenge the pervasive notion that the making of British foreign policy is dominated by a pragmatic ethos.
