Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 Cabinets, foreign policies and case-studies
- 2 Constructing the Polish Guarantee, 15–31 March 1939
- 3 The Soviet question, April–August 1939
- 4 Entry into war, 1–3 September 1939
- 5 Reacting to the ‘peace offensive’, October 1939
- 6 To continue alone? May–July 1940
- 7 The longer term: War Aims and other committees, October 1940–June 1941
- 8 Decision-making in Cabinet
- Appendix 1 The Chamberlain Cabinet, 31 October 1938–3 September 1939
- Appendix 2 Attendance at the Foreign Policy Committee of the Cabinet, 14 November 1938–25 August 1939
- Appendix 3 Neville Chamberlain's statement in the House of Commons, 12 October 1939
- Appendix 4 Lord Halifax's paper for the War Aims Committee, October 1940
- Appendix 5 Anthony Eden's speech at the Mansion House, 29 May 1941 (extract)
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- LSE MONOGRAPHS IN INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 Cabinets, foreign policies and case-studies
- 2 Constructing the Polish Guarantee, 15–31 March 1939
- 3 The Soviet question, April–August 1939
- 4 Entry into war, 1–3 September 1939
- 5 Reacting to the ‘peace offensive’, October 1939
- 6 To continue alone? May–July 1940
- 7 The longer term: War Aims and other committees, October 1940–June 1941
- 8 Decision-making in Cabinet
- Appendix 1 The Chamberlain Cabinet, 31 October 1938–3 September 1939
- Appendix 2 Attendance at the Foreign Policy Committee of the Cabinet, 14 November 1938–25 August 1939
- Appendix 3 Neville Chamberlain's statement in the House of Commons, 12 October 1939
- Appendix 4 Lord Halifax's paper for the War Aims Committee, October 1940
- Appendix 5 Anthony Eden's speech at the Mansion House, 29 May 1941 (extract)
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- LSE MONOGRAPHS IN INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Summary
Parliament is the principal source of authority in the British political system, but it is the Cabinet which stands at the pinnacle of government and focuses our attention onto the strategies and internal divisions of our leaders. Yet the Cabinet has been neglected in terms of detailed studies of what actually happens inside its institutional walls. Historians have sometimes drawn back the veil on proceedings, en route to other destinations, but political scientists, whose professional concern it is to dissect patterns of influence and the exercise of power, have generally preferred the eclectic overview to the close-textured case-study. In particular, foreign policy has almost always been left to one side; it is as if the Cabinet's decisions on international relations are either unimportant or uncontroversial. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, as a moment's reflection on the Hoare-Laval pact, the Suez crisis or recent arguments about the European Community makes clear. What the Cabinet does and does not do in the area of foreign policy can have dramatic consequences inside and outside the state, and it is certainly not, in a still secretive political culture, an open book.
But there is no lack of materials for those prepared to venture back beyond 1960. The archives teem with relevant sources, both in the great store of public records and the private papers of innumerable former Cabinet ministers. The evolution of policy can often be studied on a day-by-day, even an hour-by-hour, basis.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cabinet Decisions on Foreign PolicyThe British Experience, October 1938–June 1941, pp. xvii - xxPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991