British Defence Policy in May 1979

Abstract

No government starts with a blank sheet of paper on which to draft out its defence policy, and this chapter sets out the context in which it stood in May 1979. The period from 1945 to 1979 was one of immense change in British defence policy. By 1979 only a few vestiges of what was once the world’s largest empire remained. Europe, rather than the Empire, had become the focus of British foreign and defence policy. Within this transformation four interlinked assumptions remained consistent throughout the period. These were the hostility of the Soviet Union, the ‘special relationship’ with the United States, the creation and maintenance of a nuclear deterrent, and the ability to influence decisions on the world stage.69