ABSTRACT
The record of British foreign and defence policy since 1945 has been largely one of constant readjustment to a changing world over which British policy-makers have had diminished control. One major effect of the Second World War was to bring about the final collapse of the old Euro-centric international system, in which Britain had been a major actor, to be replaced by an international system increasingly dominated by the USA and the Soviet Union as superpowers. The change in power relations was, however, perceived by British policy-makers in a mixed fashion. In some areas British weaknesses and declining capabilities were recognized promptly and policies were designed to offset Britain’s reduced power. However, British policy-makers at both the political and administrative levels were wedded to the idea of Britain having a distinctive and global role to play in post-war world politics. Thus, while British governments recognized the power differentials between themselves and the superpowers, they sought to compensate for this difference by maintaining a distinctive set of international relationships: with the United States, with the newly-emerging Commonwealth, and with Europe; and by retaining Britain’s traditional foreign and defence policy goals, and where necessary by maintaining or acquiring the symbols of power in the international system.
