The Foreign Policy failures of British Governments in the years 1951- 1964 were due to a lack of realism about Britains post-war world. Assess the validity of this view (45)

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“The Foreign Policy failures of British Governments in the years 1951- 1964 were due to a lack of realism about Britain’s post-war world”. Assess the validity of this view (45)

The years 1951- 1964 saw the occurrence of several foreign policy failures within British Politics. The failures include the formation and downfall of a rival group to the EEC called EFTA, as well as the occurrence of the Suez Crisis and the loss of the British Empire which previously allowed Britain to stand as a dominating world power. Though, historians are in constant dispute over the true cause of these failures where some believe that the lack of realism across British politics and society was the root cause of foreign policy failures, other historians tend to disagree.

To begin with, it is arguable to suggest that a lack of realism engulfed Britain as a whole to trigger the occurrence of foreign policy failures. Society and the government failed to recognise the declining role Britain played in the world. Due to this, many proclaim it arrogant of Britain to have delayed earlier involvement with Europe. Whilst other nations like France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, West Germany and Luxemburg as the founding members of the EEC can arguable be recognised to have started modern integration between European countries who would begin to act as one body with mutual benefits (i.e. economic). However, Britain’s failure to recognise the opportunity within the EEC and how they could no longer act as ‘World Police’ came about due to a lack of realism within Britain.  As Britain during this time period can debatably have held the anti- European sentiments because they are recognised to have been held by both political parties- Labour and the Conservatives. Hence, due to a lack of realism such arrogance allowed Britain to have an exaggerated interpretation of their position in the world.

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Additionally, the Suez Crisis of 1956 again saw a lack of realism from Britain which inevitably allowed the occurrence of a foreign policy failure. As, it is argued that Britain failed to acknowledge the changing world attitudes where it could no longer act as a colonial power in order to assert its power and throw its weight around. To add to this, the Imperial illusion (the belief that Britain remained to be an Imperial power) continued to circulate Britain which prevented any changes in attitudes in Britain as well as delaying the decolonisation of Africa until the ‘Wind of Change’ ...

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