Suchergebnisse

A review essay on books by (1) Stephen Wall, A Stranger in Europe. Britain and the EU from Thatcher to Blair (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2008); (2) Ian Bache & Andrew Jordan [Eds], The Europeanization of British Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006/08). Adapted from the source document.

This article examines whether the thesis of classical realism that political states are primarily motivated by the desire for military and economic power applies to the British Empire (1815-1914). The article questions to what extent the emergence of the British Empire (1815-1914) was driven by Britain's foreign policy to alter existing power structures in international relations. The article offers an overview of pre-imperial, imperial, and post-imperial strategies within the theory classical realism, and then applies these strategies to analyze the pre-imperial (1600-1815), imperial (1815-1914) period of the British Empire. A discussion of the post-imperial period focuses on Britain's maintenance of status quo and its alliance with the U.S. The article concludes that the theory of classical realism in international relations is useful to the discussion of the emergence, use, and maintenance of political power of the British Empire (1814-1915). This article is one in a series of articles on the topic of empires. References. E. Sundby