Britain’s Loss of International Status and Its Diplomatic Struggle For the Empowerment of its Foreign Policy (1945-1990).

Abstract

This academic research aims to examine the British diplomatic practices and manoeuvres adopted from 1939 onwards, after Britain had lost its international position and status right after WWII. It also deals with the diplomatic action taken after 1979 to revive Britain’s lost status through a rigorous diplomacy. To reach this objective, light is shed on the characteristics of the decline and its causing factors, and a focus is made on the different required diplomatic practices to recover the lost status. Throughout the whole research, information and concepts are introduced thematically following a chronological order, where events and facts are treated on the basis of a historical description supported with a systemic evaluation and analysis. Practically speaking, the work offers a portrait about Britain’s high international status experienced up to WWII, the period during which it could build the strongest and most unique Empire whose diplomacy was highly acknowledged. But, right after the war, Britain entered a critical period characterized by a serious decline in terms of its world position and diplomatic efficiency. Growing aware about the alarming situation, far-reaching diplomatic efforts to empower foreign policy, were successfully deployed between 1979 and 1990 by the British government under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher