Greater Britain or Greater Synthesis?
In: Review of international studies: RIS, Band 27, Heft 2, S. 187-208
ISSN: 0260-2105
At the zenith of GB power at the beginning of the 20th century there was a widespread recognition that GB's position in the emerging global industrial interstate system was increasingly precarious & that widespread adjustments would be needed. One solution, the "imperial federalism" of Seeley & Mackinder, proposed the political integration of the scattered British settler colonies into a "Greater Britain." Alternatively, Wells predicted that GB would become integrated into an Anglo-American "greater synthesis," & that Europe would be unified on "Swiss confederal" rather than German authoritarian lines. These proposals & prophesies were based upon interpretations of the changing material context composed of technology interacting with geography, & were seriously flawed. Extensive debates on these schemes indicate that the range of grand strategic choice was broader than that conceptualized by contemporary realism. The failure of GB national integration due to geographic factors & the endurance of the Anglo-American special relationship casts the roles of the nation-state & the Western liberal order in a new perspective. Adapted from the source document.