The Labour Party and Foreign Policy A History [Hardcover]

This book provides a penetrating new study of the Labour Partys thinking on international relations, which probes the past, present and future of the partys approach to the international stage.

The foreign policy of the Labour Party is not only neglected in most histories of the party, it is also often considered in isolation from the partys origins, evolution and major domestic preoccupations. Yet nothing has been more divisive and more controversial in Labours history than the partys foreign and defence policies and their relationship to its domestic programme.

Much more has turned on this than the generation of tempestuous conference debates. Labours credentials as a credible prospect for Governmental office were thought to depend on a responsible approach to foreign and defence policy. Its exclusion from office was often said to stem from a failure to meet this test, as in the 1950s. The composition of Labour Cabinets was powerfully influenced by foreign and defence considerations, as was the centralization of power and decision-making within Labour Governments. The domestic achievements and failures of these periods in office were inextricably connected to international questions.

The Labour Party and Foreign Policyis recommended for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in British politics and European history.

1. Party and Liberal Nation  2. The First World War  3. Peace in our Time  4. Crisis of Liberal Internationalism  5. The Second World War  6. Great Power Strategies 7. A Party Divided  8. The Last Pretence 

If history is not to be repeated, it must first be understood. Which is why the publication of this elegant and comprehensive study is so valuable and timely. Most historians of the Labour Party ignore or marginalize its foreign policy. But not John Callaghan. He puts foreign policy at the cel(