Britain and the Cold War: 1945 as Geopolitical Transition (Geography & International Relations S.) - Softcover

In 1945 Britain emerged from World War II exhausted and debilitated, but still a major global power, with enormous strategic commitments, imperial responsibilities and a sense of historical destiny as an ubiquitous economic and political influence. This book charts how this role and self-image changed and how in the post-1945 world, the United States progressively assumed Britain's cast-off mantle. With a blend of original documentary research and a freshly-minted theoretical perspective, Peter Taylor articulates the new concept of geopolitical transition to illuminate the complex history of Britain's withdrawal from great power status. This book seeks to provide genuinely new interpretation of how the Cold War arose and how the reordering of the global economic, political and strategic systems in the post-war world came about. It will be of interest to political geographers, historians, international relations experts and political scientists.