ABSTRACT
In spite of the twists and turns imposed by internal and external events, Britain had a strategy that assumed her to be an independent actor on the world stage. The 1967 Supplementary Statement on Defence put more emphasis on peacekeeping, or ‘brush fire wars’ East of Suez, than it did on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance. British defence policy was linked to that of the Western alliance, and new force requirements could be justified only by reference to that policy. As the 1970s went on it was clear that Britain did not fit easily in the NATO box. The cod wars, Oman, Caribbean preoccupations, and flurries as far away as the South Atlantic and the New Hebrides showed the sensitivity of British interests to matters that were considered of no concern by the Alliance. Some of these could be presented as non-recurring residues of Empire, others clearly could not.
