ABSTRACT
Primary interests could be defined as those which are linked to a state’s national survival or the protection of its physical, political, ethnic, religious or cultural existence. An important observation, though apparently a truism, is the fact that all states have basically the same primary national interests and construct their policies accordingly. The strategic-political sphere is strictly connected with the notion of military power deemed necessary for national survival in a dangerous international environment, and for the attainment of all other national goals. The present interests connected with Britain’s former colonial possessions are now quite different from those of a century ago, and though still important cannot be described as ‘vital’. States seem to measure their supreme national interests against their ‘net achievement capability’, that is, they define the realm of their national interests according to their capabilities and constraints.
