ABSTRACT
During the century before 1945 Britain’s foreign policy was determined by the nature of her economic interests in the world. The word ‘determined’ is used here deliberately, to indicate that no alternative courses of foreign policy were ever realistically open to her. Some courses might have been wiser in the longer run than the ones she took, but she was incapable of acting to her long-term benefit while the short-term pressures on her were so overwhelming. A direct military attack was the most catastrophic of the threats which were felt to be posed to Britain by the Soviet Union after 1945; but it was not – and was not widely regarded as – an immediate one. Britain’s relations with the world after 1945 were as much governed by her material situation after 1945 as they had been before, except that by now that material situation no longer unambiguously indicated where her national interest lay.
