ABSTRACT
For the AWOPC, the end of the First World War was followed by gentle taking stock, then by a long period of low activity, and eventually by increasing activity as another Great War became rapidly more likely. This pattern reflected the large-scale post-WWI demilitarisation, and the long-lasting perception of a low immediacy of external threats to British security interests. There was national and imperial preoccupation with more pressing problems, including those of Ireland, of the Depression, of the evolution of the United States as the predominant world economic power, and of adjustment to post-World War I social realities in Britain.
