Finding Britain's place in the 'New World Order': foreign policy in the Thatcher and Major governments at the end of the Cold War

这个项目将研究英国在冷战最后几年的外交政策及其后果，使用最近公布的档案材料，以揭示一个时期，仍然高度政治化和知之甚少新的光。在冷战的最后阶段，英国寻求实现什么目标？撒切尔和主要政府在多大程度上实现了这些目标？2.这些政府为使英国重新适应后冷战的政治环境做了哪些努力，在多大程度上取得了成功？英国在这一时期的重要性是不值得研究的，外交史上新的方法论发展尚未在学术中得到反映。虽然较老的帐户特权超级大国为中心的叙述，较新的作品已经“国际化”的讨论，但英国落后。例如，Bozo（2008）强调了法德的作用，阿尔伯斯和Chen（2017）研究了中国的贡献，但缺乏关于英国目标、限制和位置的工作。在方法论上，Service（2015）和Brown（2020）通过讨论个人关系在冷战后期外交中的重要性及其情感背景，建立在外交史上日益增长的“情感转向”的基础上，但英国只被认为是与超级大国的交叉点。我的项目统一了这两个趋势，国际化这些事件，从英国的角度来审视他们，同时应用现代方法，占重要的情感因素。英国的边缘化的奖学金源于当前的“衰落”，在那里缺乏档案材料引起了恶化的影响简单化的叙述。汤姆林森（2016）认为，“政治化和论战话语”的不成比例的影响掩盖了对英国影响的更多方面的审查，但随着这一时期大量档案材料的出现，挑战这一立场的机会已经出现。外交和联邦事务部和首相办公室的新材料将支持这一项目，剑桥的丘吉尔学院除了举办BDOH方案外，还举办了关键人物的论文，其中包括对外交官员的采访。最新的英美关系文件可在里根/布什图书馆、国家安全档案馆和国家档案馆找到，许多文件可通过USDDO计划以数字方式获得。这个项目也可能是最后一次收集梅杰、赫德和里夫金德等关键人物口述历史的机会，他们的反思提供了不可替代的洞察力。我计划在第一年（2022-23）收集英国的资料，并在第二年（2023- 24）访问美国。数字化资源的可用性不断提高，这带来了灵活性：如果COVID-19成为面对面研究的障碍，则可以优先考虑在线资源，美国之行将推迟到2024- 25年。该项目将重新评估我们目前对撒切尔政府在冷战后期的地位的理解，并首次深入研究主要政府在其高潮中的作用，挑战这个动荡时代的文化建设。通过对最近的过去提供一个新的和微妙的视角，它将为今天的外交政策制定者提供宝贵的见解。

This project will examine British foreign policy in the final years of the Cold War and its aftermath, using recently-released archival material to shed new light on a period which remains highly politicised and poorly understood.It will ask:1. What did Britain seek to accomplish in the final period of the Cold War, and to what extent did the Thatcher and Major governments achieve those aims?2. What efforts were made by these governments to reorient Britain towards a post-Cold War political environment, and to what extent were they successful?Britain's significance in this period is undeservedly under-studied, and new methodological developments in diplomatic history are yet to be reflected in the scholarship. While older accounts privilege superpower-centric narratives, newer works have 'internationalised' the discussion but left Britain behind. For example, Bozo (2008) emphasises the Franco-German role and Albers and Chen (2017) examine Chinese contributions, but there is a dearth of work on Britain's objectives, constraints, and place. Methodologically, Service (2015) and Brown (2020) build on the growing 'emotional turn' in diplomatic history by discussing the significance of personal relations in late-Cold War diplomacy and the emotional context therein, but Britain is considered only at its intersections with the superpowers. My project unifies these two trends, internationalising these events by examining them from the British perspective while applying a modern methodology which accounts for important emotional factors.Britain's marginalisation in the scholarship stems from a current of 'declinism', where a paucity of archival material has given rise to simplistic narratives of deteriorating influence. Tomlinson (2016) argues that the disproportionate influence of 'politicized and polemical discourses' overshadows a more multifaceted examination of Britain's impact, but an opportunity to challenge this position has arisen as a large amount of archival material from this period has recently become available. New FCO and Prime Minister's Office material will underpin this project, and Churchill College, Cambridge, hosts papers from key figures alongside their BDOH Programme which includes interviews with diplomatic officials. Newly available US documents on the Anglo-American relationship are found in the Reagan/Bush Libraries, the National Security Archive and the National Archives, and many are available digitally via the USDDO programme. This project may also represent the last opportunity to collect oral history from key figures such as Major, Hurd and Rifkind, and their reflections offer irreplaceable insight.I plan to work on UK-based sources in the first year (2022-23) and visit the US in the second year (2023- 24). The rising availability of digitised sources allows for flexibility: online resources can be prioritised if COVID-19 becomes an impediment to in-person research, with the US trip delayed to 2024-25.This project will re-evaluate our current understanding of the Thatcher government's place in the latter years of the Cold War and provide the first in-depth examination of the Major government's role in its culmination, challenging the cultural construction of these turbulent times. By offering a new and nuanced perspective on the recent past, it will give invaluable insight to the makers of foreign policy today.