Summary:
This detailed study re-examines the popular narratives concerning British policy after the Suez Crisis, arguing that there was no strategic reset after the events of 1956. Though the government had long recognised the need for a reprioritisation of defence—based on dire post-war economic realities and a series of geopolitical ‘shocks’ which faced Britain in the years after 1945—there was little serious consideration of Britain reducing global obligations. Even after a more concerted effort to review British defence and security policy in the early 1950s, the ministerial views of Britain’s global role remained largely unchanged—a reality which lasted through the period of the Suez Crisis. Indeed, it was not until 1968 and the decision to withdraw British forces from the east of Suez and the Persian Gulf that a more radical strategic reset was implemented.
