International records / OpenAlex research

Through the Looking Glass: British Foreign Policy in an Age of Illusions

The Falklands Islands crisis emphasizes the continuing dilemma over Britain's role in international politics. In November 1942 Anthony Eden, as Foreign Secretary in Britain's wartime coalition cabinet, declared: 'I assume that the aim of British policy must be first, that we should continue to exercise the functions of a world power.' This is a stance which has frequently forced Whitehall to tell governments of the difference between illusion and reality. Winston Churchill was a statesman who did grasp this difference, particularly in his relations with Josef Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt. Ern…