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Research Interests
 | Until 2000 I focused my research on the early years of the Cold War and European integration, with works based on archival research in Britain, France and the US. Alongside other European international historians I tried to demonstrate the importance of British and French policy decisions to the outbreak of the Cold War. In looking at the Cold War in 1945-55, I was interested in illuminating France�s decision to side with the Western powers in NATO (in France, the Cold War and the Western Alliance, 1945-49 of 1990) and in showing how Churchill�s advocacy of d?tente in the 1950s was consistent with his earlier urging of resistance to Stalin�s expansionism (in Winston Churchill�s Last campaign: Britain and the Cold War, 1951-55 of 1996)). In looking at European integration I have argued that the traditional view, that Britain �missed the bus� on European unity in the early post-war years, is simplistic. Britain had an active and considered policy towards Western Europe in this period, and one that had positive aspects; historians need to explain why this policy did not lead the country towards a more active role in supranational bodies. See Britain, France and the Unity of Europe, 1945-51 (1984) and Britain and European Unity, 1945-99 (second edition, 2000). | Since 2000 my main research interests focus on the conduct of British foreign policy in the 1960s and 1970s. In particular I have written on the international policy of the Labour governments of 1964-70 (with a monograph from Manchester University Press in 2003). In contrast to earlier work, tries to take a broad view, looking not only at Cold War issues and European integration, but also at changes in defence policy (notably with the withdrawal from bases East of Suez), colonial problems (especially the future of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe) and how foreign policy was made. I have now moved on to look at the Conservative government of Edward Heath, 1970-74, and to focus in particular on British diplomatic method � the purpose and structure of the diplomatic service, the British experience of summitry and multilateral diplomacy, policy on diplomatic recognition, and the roles of embassies and ambassadors. I have been the chair of the British International History Group since 2002. I am just completing a monograph on British diplomatic practice in the 1960s and 1970s looking at such areas as government reports on the Diplomatic Service, the value of ambassadors, the use of summits and multilateral conferences, recognition of governmenta and breaches in diplomatic relations. To help me write this up I have received a matching-leave award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. |
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Supervision
British foreign policy since 1945, especially on East-West relations, European integration and diplomatic practice. The PhD students who I am currently supervising are as follows: Chidi Nwonyi
Andrew Holt
Nick Lewkowicz
Alex Spelling
Teaching
My teaching reflects my research interests in international history since 1945 and the broader subject of diplomacy. I convene a second year module on �British Foreign Policy and the Origins of the World Wars� which exploits the large number of works that have been published on the coming of war in 1914 and the era of appeasement. My third year Special Subject on �LBJ�s War� focuses on the US government�s decision to commit itself to an air and ground war in Vietnam and considers the implications of this decision for America and the world, making use of original materials such as those published in the series �Foreign Relations of the United States.� At MA level I teach a wide-ranging module on �The Evolution of Diplomacy� which goes as far back as Ancient Egypt and the Amarna archive to explore what we mean by diplomacy and how diplomatic practice has altered over time. | Top |
Publications | Books: single-authored / joint-authored / edited Twentieth-Century Diplomacy : A Case Study Of British Practice, 1963 - 1976 (Cambridge University Press, 2008) International Relations since 1945: a global history. Co-authored with Dr. John Kent of LSE. (Oxford University Press, 2004.) 743 pp The Labour Governments 1964-70: International Policy (Manchester University Press, 2003). 241pp + xiii. *He Evropi tou Psychou Polemou 1945-91: Politiki Historia (Patakh, Athens, 2002: Greek edition of 6 above) | 
| Journal articles 'International Factors and the 1964 Election', Contemporary British History, vol. 21, no. 3 (September 2007), 351-71. 'A Case Study in Summitry: the experience of Britain's Edward Heath, 1970-74', Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol. 1, no. 3 (2006), 261-93. 'The Diary of Michael Stewart as British Foreign Secretary, April-May 1968', Contemporary British History, vol. 19, no. 4 (December 2005), 481-510 ('Research Note': the diary entries plus an introductory essay) 'Killing the MLF? The Wilson government and Nuclear Sharing in Europe, 1964-66', Diplomacy and Statecraft, vol. 14, no. 2 (June 2003), 295-324. 'Britain and "LBJ's War", 1964-8', Cold War History, vol. 2, no. 3 (April 2002), 63-92. 'The Origins of NATO' (in Greek translation as 'Te Demiourgia tou NATO'), Istorika, 107 (November 2001), 45-49. 'The Wilson Government's Reform of Intelligence Co-ordination, 1967-8', Intelligence and National Security, vol. 16, no. 2 (Summer 2001), pp 133-51 ('Research Note': documents and commentary). ‘Churchill and East-West Détente’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Sixth Series, vol. XI (2001), 373-92. | Essays in dited collections ‘Franco-British Relations during the Wilson Years, 1964-70’, in Antoine Capet, ed., Britain, France and the Entente Cordiale since 1904 (Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2006), 162-83. ‘The Anglo-American “Special Relationship”’, in Harriet Jones, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Britain, 1939-2000 (Blackwell, London, 2005), 499-516 (with Michael Hopkins). ‘Churchill and East-West Détente’, in David Cannadine and Roland Quinault, eds., Winston Churchill in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 187-206. [Reprint of C, 20 above.] ‘Europe’, in Anthony Seldon and Kevin Hickson, eds., New Labour, Old Labour: the Wilson and Callaghan governments, 1974-79 (Routledge, London, 2004), 139-53. ‘British Governments and the Vietnam war’, in Christopher Goscha and Maurice Vaisse, eds., La Guerre du Vietnam et l’Europe, 1963-73 (Bruylant, Brussels, 2003), 117-30. ‘The European Technological Community in Wilson’s Strategy for EEC Entry’, in Oliver Daddow, ed., The Second Try: Harold Wilson and Europe, 1964-7 (Cass, 2003), 95-114. ‘The Netherlands in Britain’s Strategy for EEC Entry’, in N. Ashton and D. Hellema, eds., Unspoken Allies: Anglo-Dutch Relations since 1780 (Amsterdam University Press, 2001), pp. 241-54. | | | Conferences
(not listed) Full pre-2001 publication list Top | |
