Shaping the future of the world : Eden, the Foreign Office and British foreign policy 1941-1943

Hall, David (2015) Shaping the future of the world : Eden, the Foreign Office and British foreign policy 1941-1943. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

The Second World War has captured the interest of people around the world, and has fascinated generations of historians. Despite the time that has elapsed since the events, and the opening of the official papers in 1977, one thing remains the same, the under-examination of British foreign policy during the war. The history that has been written has struggled to break from the picture Churchill
painted in ‘The Second World War’, presenting the inevitability of the Anglo-American special relationship and minimising the important contributions of Eden and the Foreign Office.
In an exercise in anti-Whig history, this thesis attempts to right this historical wrong, and suggest that this was not the only outcome available to Britain as a result of the Second World War. By examining the Foreign Office records, it
presents a different picture: that traditional British foreign policy was still going strong, and that the Foreign Office, with Eden at the helm, had its own vision for
the post-war world. In this vision Britain would remain a great power with an independent foreign policy, and would be involved in a global post-war organisation designed to maintain European and World peace.
This work will examine the origins of this vision, and trace its development through the early years of the war, highlighting the plans that were brought forward and the efforts that were made to make this official policy. It will also
assess the reasons for the apparent failure of this policy, and offer suggestions of possible outcomes for Britain had it been implemented. This vision fundamentally differed from Churchill’s, but ultimately could have supplemented it, had the great man allowed it to do so.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User:	Jackie Webb
Date Deposited:	26 Jun 2015 10:36
Last Modified:	26 Jun 2015 10:36
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/53392
DOI:

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