Historical Dictionary of British Foreign Policy

Peter Neville is a research associate of the University of Westminster and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has spent more than two decades researching and writing about British diplomacy. He is the author of numerous works on modern British and European History.

Britain has had a foreign office since 1782. Most of its early policies involved protecting British naval supremacy and the trade routes to its empire. Since WW II and the Cold War, Britain has been a secondary power, but with an interest in regional defense and economic organization in Europe. The entries in this dictionary by Neville reflect these changing realities of British foreign policy. The volume opens with a chronology of events from 1702 to 2012. These are fleshed out in an extensive introduction to British history in this time period. The dictionary itself has detailed entries on British prime ministers; foreign secretaries/undersecretaries; both British and foreign diplomats; other foreign figures (such as American presidents who have impacted British foreign policy); and countries, places, and events that have played a role in its history. Other features are appendixes of prime ministers, foreign secretaries, and permanent undersecretaries, with their dates in office, and an extensive bibliography of resources, also arranged chronologically. This would be a useful resource for both students and researchers of British foreign policy. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.