ABSTRACT
In any account of the foreign policy making process in Britain, the obvious place to start is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The FCO is regarded as one of the three senior departments within the British government, and appointment to the job of Foreign Secretary normally entails very high rank within the Cabinet. The 2016 referendum which started the process of British withdrawal from the European Union has already affected the FCO more than other Whitehall departments, and the ultimate impact of this decision will not be evident for some time. In strictly institutional terms, the history of British external relations since 1945 could be seen as a process in which the Foreign Office gradually absorbed government departments which had been set up at various times to administer the Empire. In itself, the institutional history of Britain’s external relations sheds interesting light on the landmarks in the country’s foreign policy, particularly in the post-war period.
