Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses a number of the small retreats, or as he describes them, ‘retirements’, that Britain made in regard to its relations with Japan during the period following the signing of the second alliance treaty in 1905 and the termination of the alliance in 1923. It looks at the case studies of the difficulties that Britain faced in the region. The book outlines how the Germany tried, using its consuls in Shanghai and Bangkok and the German community in the Dutch East Indies, to support a dispersed, but determined, network of Indian revolutionaries. It examines the ‘everyday Cold War’ between Britain and the People’s Republic of China at the height of the Vietnam War and the Cultural Revolution.