Interpreting the Syria vote: parliament and British foreign policy

This article presents three distinct interpretations of how parliamentary war powers affect British foreign policy more generally, based on a detailed analysis of the debate preceding the vote in parliament in August 2013 on whether Britain should intervene in the Syrian civil war. The first interpretation treats parliament as a site for domestic role contestation. From this perspective, parliamentary war powers matter because they raise the significance of MPs' doubts about Britain's proper global ‘role’. The second interpretation treats parliament as a forum for policy debate. There is nothing new about MPs discussing international initiatives. But now they do more than debate, they decide, at least where military action is involved. From this perspective, parliamentary war powers matter because they make British foreign policy more cautious and less consistent, even if they also make it more transparent and (potentially) more democratic in turn. The final interpretation treats parliament as an arena for political competition. From this perspective, parliamentary involvement exposes major foreign policy decisions to the vagaries of partisan politicking, a potent development in an era of weak or coalition governments, and a recipe for unpredictability. Together these developments made parliament's war powers highly significant, not just where military action is concerned, but for British foreign policy overall.     

The limits of engagement: British foreign policy and the crisis in Zimbabwe

This article examines how the British government has responded to Zimbabwe’s ongoing crisis. This case raises several wider issues for British foreign policy, most notably the question of how much leverage London can exercise on the international scene in general, and over relatively small and weak states like Zimbabwe in particular. Zimbabwe’s crisis also raises profound questions about the appropriate balance between bilateral and multilateral policies, and between engaging in public criticism and conducting so–called ‘quiet diplomacy’. While bilateralism clearly has not worked, multilateralism has revealed its own frustrations, especially given the reluctance of many African elites within a number of organizations to criticize President Mugabe’s policies. This reluctance threatens to unravel the British Labour government’s stated objectives in Africa while at the same time raising important doubts over the credibility of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and whether an ‘Africa moment’ can be discerned in the manner articulated by prime minister Tony Blair.     

Choosing between America and Europe: a new context for British foreign policy

Power in Britain has changed hands from a prime minister who sought to balance intense UK‐US consultation on foreign policy with the ambition to be ‘at the heart of Europe’ to one whose approach towards both the United States and the European Union has yet to be tested. It is an appropriate moment, there fore, to assess how these two contextual poles of British foreign policy‐making have changed over recent years and what this might mean for UK foreign policy choices. The premise of this article is that the days are now largely over when the UK can or should start out by trying to build an Anglo‐US position on a foreign policy challenge before trying to tie in the European and transatlantic positions. The UK is now a central player in the development of increasingly activist European foreign policies, whether these can later be coordinated effectively with the United States or not. A strong, bilateral relationship continues to serve the interests of both sides on multiple levels, but this relationship does not sit upon the same foundations as during the Cold War. There are now significant underlying factors, especially since the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 in the US and July 7 2005 in the UK, that pull the US away from Europe and the UK, while pushing the UK towards Europe as the first port of call in developing foreign policy strategies. It is also notable that, today, UK positions on most global issues and foreign policy challenges tend to conform more closely to the dominant EU line than to the United States. On balance, the UK might think about European integration more from a US than from a European perspective, but it now thinks about global problems more from a European than from a US or transatlantic perspective.     

Justices and Injustices: the Order of St John,the Holy See,and the Appeals Tribunal in Rome

In the early seventeenth century it became customary for knights of Malta who committed crimes to appeal to the tribunal of the Apostolic Chamber (Audentia Camera) in Rome. The Grand Masters of the Order of St John in Malta blamed this practice on the advent of the Apostolic Visitor and Roman Inquisitor in 1574 and saw its activities as a direct infringement of their authority over members of the Order and their subjects in Malta. Therefore on occasions successive Grand Masters found ways to “protest” with the Holy See claiming that the activities of the Apostolic Chamber were a threat to their rule, but the Grand Masters could not go beyond protesting because the Order of St John was above all a Catholic religious institution and the Pope in Rome was its ultimate head.     

"De-humanised females and Amazonians": British wartime fashion and its representation in Home chat, 1914-1918

Popular representations of the fashionably dressed female body between 1914 and 1918 were highly contradictory and, as this essay will show, were sharply delineated in Home Chat, one of a growing number of relatively new women's magazines which addressed the needs of an expanding skilled working-class and lower-middle-class female readership. Aiming to provide women with practical advice about all aspects of their daily lives, from the traditional concerns of fashion and beauty, marriage and children, to the more contentious issue of women's aspirations beyond the home, Home Chat was uniquely placed to reflect shifting gender and class relations.     

Pilgrimages to the Holy Well and Ruined Church of St. Conal on the Island Inishkeel,Gweebarra Bay,Co. Donegal

AN UN-ROMANTIC VIEW OF THE MUMMERS' PLAY. By MARGARET DEAN-SMITH. From Theatre Research VIII, 2. (1966). Reviewed by Violet Alford.

THE ICELANDIC FAMILY SAGA. By THEODORE M. ANDERSSON. Harvard University Press, 1967. Pp. x + 315. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

THE PLACE-NAMES OF WESTMORLAND. By A. H. SMITH, 2 vols., Cambridge University Press, 1967. English Place-Name Society, vols.xlii-iii. Reviewed by Wilfred Bonser.

VOLKSGLAUBE UND VOLKSBRAUCH. Gestalten. Gebilde. By LEOPOLD SCHMIDT. Gebärden Berlin. Erich Schmidt Verlag. 1966. Pp. 420. 4 maps. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

8AGE. By LUTZ RÖHRICH. Stuttgart, J. B. Metzler, 1966. Pp. 78. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

THE TREE OF LIFE. An archaeological Study. By E. O. JAMES. Studies in the History of Religions (Supplements to Numen), xi. Leiden, E. Brill, 1966. Pp.xviii, 293. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

HAUSLANDSCHAFTEN UND KULTURBEWEGUNGEN IM ÖSTLICHEN MITTELEUROPA. By BRUNO SCHIER. 2nd enlarged edition. Göttingen, Verlag Otto Schwartz &; Co, 1966. Pp. xx, 451;38 text ills., 46 plates, II maps. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

BEFORE OLYMPOS. A Study of the Aniconic Origins of Poseidon, Hermes and Eros. By ELMER G. SUHR. Illustrated. New York, Helios Books, Pp. 175. $5.05. Reviewed by E. O. James.     

MacDonald's Parties: The Labour Party and the 'Aristocratic Embrace', 1922-31

The article tests the claim that certain Labour MPs and ministersin the 1920s succumbed to an ‘aristocratic embrace’.It begins with a short account of debates in the early LabourParty over social mixing, which culminated in the 1924 disputeover the wearing of Court Dress by some Labour ministers. Theextent of ‘embrace’ is assessed through the examinationof who wore Court Dress (and why), who was offered and acceptedhonours, and of patterns of residence, income and wealth, andparticipation in London Society, measured by club membershipsand appearances in the Court & Social columns of The Times.The article concludes by examining the usefulness of the ideaof ‘aristocratic embrace’ in explaining the defectionof J.R. MacDonald and others from the Labour Party in 1931.     

Tradition,myth and the dilemma of Australian foreign policy

For a middle power with a relatively short history of framing a self determined foreign policy, Australia has actively sought to engage with both its immediate region and the wider world. Elite agreement on this external orientation, however, has by no means entailed consensus on what this orientation might involve in terms of policy. Consequently, two, often conflicting, traditions and their associated myths have informed Australian foreign policy-making. The most enduring tradition shaping foreign policy views Australia as a somewhat isolated bastion of Western civilisation. In this mode Australia's myth is pragmatic, but uncertain and sees Asia as both an opportunity and a potential threat which requires the support and counsel of culturally similar external powers engaged in the region to ensure stability. Against this, an alternative and historically later tradition crafted a foreign policy that advanced Australian independence through engagement with a seemingly monolithic and increasingly prosperous Asia. This paper explores the evolution and limitations of these foreign policy traditions and the myths that sustain them. It further considers what features of these traditions continue to have resonance in a region that has become more fluid and heterogeneous than it was during the Cold War and which requires a foreign policy flexibility that can address this complex and strategically uncertain environment.