ABSTRACT
The key question about the Labour Party’s international and defence policy over the course of its history is the question of a ‘socialist’ Britain’s role in the world. When is it right for a democracy to intervene in the affairs of other states? What circumstances need to exist for that democracy to agree with or participate in the use of force in other sovereign states or against international groups? What relationship should Britain have with organisations of states? The second set of questions concerns Labour as a socialist party: What is the nature of the leadership that Britain should take? Can we separate a capitalist war from a democratic war? What is the connection between pacifism and socialism? All of these questions cut to the core of the dilemma faced by a party with a strongly utopian element in its founding ideology and an almost entirely practical orientation in its operation in practice. This chapter will attempt to explore the way in which Labour grappled with this question through an analysis of Labour’s construction of Britain’s place in the world.
