Greatness and Decline: National Identity and British Foreign Policy

Exceptionalist ideas have long influenced British foreign policy, and Srdjan Vucetic's book "Greatness and Decline" explores the period between Clement Attlee's New Jerusalem and Tony Blair's New Labour. It argues that Britain's pursuit of global power was not just a function of consensus among policymakers but also of popular, everyday, and evolving ideas about identity circulating within British society. Vucetic uses a unique archive of political speeches, newspapers, history textbooks, novels, and movies to uncover these ideas.

Format: Hardback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 18 February 2021
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press

Exceptionalist ideas have long influenced British foreign policy, and as Britain confronts the challenges of a post-Brexit era in an increasingly unstable world, a re-examination of the nature and causes of this exceptionalist bent is in order. Srdjan Vucetic takes a closer look at the period between Clement Attlee's New Jerusalem and Tony Blair's New Labour, arguing that Britain's search for greatness in world affairs was, and still is, a matter of habit. To uncover these ideas, Vucetic works with a unique archive of political speeches, newspapers, history textbooks, novels, and movies across colonial, Cold War, and post-Cold War periods. Greatness and Decline sheds new light on Britain's interactions with the rest of the world while demonstrating new possibilities for constructivist foreign policy analysis.

Britain's pursuit of global power was not just a function of consensus among policymakers or political elites, but rather developed from popular, everyday, and gradually evolving ideas about identity circulating within British society. Vucetic's unique archive of political speeches, newspapers, history textbooks, novels, and movies across colonial, Cold War, and post-Cold War periods provides a rich source of information for understanding these ideas.

Greatness and Decline offers new insights into Britain's interactions with the rest of the world, demonstrating new possibilities for constructivist foreign policy analysis. By examining the period between Clement Attlee's New Jerusalem and Tony Blair's New Labour, Vucetic reveals how Britain's search for greatness in world affairs was shaped by popular, everyday, and evolving ideas about identity. This unique archive of political speeches, newspapers, history textbooks, novels, and movies provides a rich source of information for understanding these ideas and their impact on British foreign policy.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780228005865