ABSTRACT
Until recently, the smaller Gulf States have been overlooked in the study of British decolonization. Indeed, they often appear as mere footnotes to Britain’s departure from larger, and ostensibly more important, territories. Yet in many ways, the British egress from the Gulf was at least as significant in Britain’s re-positioning in the post-war world than its departure from other dependent territories. The transfer of power in India in 1947 was accompanied by a strengthening of Britain’s commitment not merely to what remained of its Asian empire (especially Malaya), but also to the African colonies. Equally, the quickening of the pace of decolonization in Africa in the late 1950s and early 1960s did not foreshadow a repudiation of Britain’s global role. Nevertheless, the decision, announced in January 1968, to leave the Gulf and South-East Asia within three years represented an explicit recognition by Britain that its ‘East of Suez’ role was at an end. Reflecting upon this reversal, the Labour grandee Patrick Gordon Walker described it as ‘the most momentous shift in our foreign policy for a century and a half’.1 Even allowing for some hyperbole, this depiction does reflect the import of a series of decisions which saw the renunciation of the world role which had been so much a part of British external policy and identity since the early nineteenth century, if not before. The demise of the commitment to the role outside Europe, of which the politico-military presence in the Gulf was a vital part, is perhaps all the more noteworthy since not only was there strong local support for a continuation of Britain’s traditional role, but also British interests in the region, which had grown markedly since the early 1950s, still remained strong.
