Gunboat Diplomacy: Outmoded or Back in Vogue?

Abstract

Lord Palmerston once remarked that while diplomats and protocols were useful in themselves, in his opinion there were no better peacekeepers than well appointed three-deckers.l Palmerston’s conviction that the Royal Navy was the key to British power projection overseas may be seen in his use of naval vessels to buttress British foreign and defence policy initiatives around the globe in time of peace. His chauvinistic truculence, therefore, found suitable expression in what was described as ‘gunboat diplomacy’.2 His dramatic naval initiatives, as popular at home as they were detested abroad, never failed to make a startling impact on those coastal states who were brought into confrontation with ships of the Royal Navy.KeywordsFalkland IslandMaritime SecurityAircraft CarrierNaval VesselInternational Herald TribuneThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.