Publisher's Synopsis
This book provides a new perspective on the origins of the Cold War by emphasizing the commitment of Bevin and the Labour Government of 1945 to a strong imperial role based on the projection of British power on a global basis. Its focus is on the key issue of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, but it also examines the role of sub-Saharan Africa in Britain's global strategy. This analysis points to previously neglected elements in the explanation of great power rivalries.;The book argues that as the Cold War developed British aims were not primarily geared to the development of a special relationship with America or a place in NATO but rather to the development of the British imperial system in which the empire would be equal to and independent of both the United States and the Soviet Union.;It provides a revolutionary new explanation for the economic and political crises which dominated British politics in the late 1940s and early 1950s, culminating in the Suez debacle.;John Kent is the author of "Anglo-French Relations in Tropical Africa" (OUP) and "British Documents at the End of the Empire" (HMSO).
