November 16, 2012

Klaus Larres (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Peacemakers: Attlee - Churchill - Macmillan
British Attempts to Settle the East-West Conflict (1945-1963)

After World War II British politicians were faced with rapidly diminishing economic resources and ever increasing global demands on their country's foreign policy. Attempting to overcome the Cold War by entering into a bilateral or a multilateral rapprochement with the Soviet Union seemed to be the only way out. In an ever more difficult economic and financial environment, only a lessening of international tensions - essentially an end of the Cold War - appeared to guarantee Britain's continued global influence on a par with the world's other nuclear armed great powers. This paper will consider the policies of Clement Attlee (1945-1951), Winston Churchill (1951-1955) and Harold Macmillan (1957-1963) to maintain Britain's membership in that most elusive of clubs: the superpower club of the post-1945 world.

Klaus Larres is the Richard M Krasno Distinguished Professor in History and International Affairs at UNC Chapel Hill. He also is a Senior Fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.

Co-sponsored by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies