At the end of World War II, Britain faced enormous financial and economic problems, made more intractable by the heavy defence expenditure demanded by colonial presence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and the decision to go ahead with producing a British atomic bomb in the light of a growing Soviet threat.This book looks at how British defence policy has balanced the country's need to maintain the status of an independent nuclear power with its diminishing role in world politics, generally, concentrating on how that policy was applied in key events such as the Korean War, the Suez crisis of 1956 and the Falklands. It will provide a clearly written and accessible analysis of the main currents of and developments in British defence policy since 1945.

Michael Dockrill is the author of British Defence Since 1945, published by Wiley.