Book Review: Britain and Ireland: The Labour Party and the World, Volume 2: Labour's Foreign Policy since 1951

Published date01 May 2013
AuthorOliver Daddow
DOI10.1111/1478-9302.12016_99
Date01 May 2013
Subject MatterBook Review
The Labour Party and the World, Volume 2:
Labour’s Foreign Policy since 1951 by Rhiannon
Vickers. Manchester: Manchester University Press,
2011. 243pp., £65.00, ISBN 9780719067464
The principal argument of this book (p. 3) is that,
despite being unable to put it into practice by virtue of
being out of off‌ice for sizeable chunks of time, ‘there
has been a discernible Labour Party foreign policy
throughout the twentieth century, and this can most
helpfully be categorised as “internationalism” ’.
Chapter 1 considers the six beliefs that underpin the
Labour Party’s internationalist outlook, which some-
times but not always overlaps with British foreign policy
as thought about and practised by the Conservative
Party. Chapter 2 surveys developments in the 1950s,
with new wars and conf‌licts such as Korea challenging
the party’s approach to rearmament and nuclear
weapons in and outside Western Europe.The national
humiliation of Suez and increasing Cold War tensions
over Hungary illustrate how fast Britain was falling from
the ‘top table’of power and inf‌luence in this decade.
Chapter 3 covers the HaroldWilson years, 1964–70,
emphasising Anglo-American tensions over British
troop commitments to the Vietnam War,debates about
the British defence role ‘east of Suez’, as well as Rho-
desia and the failed Labour bid to take Britain into the
EEC to prop up its ailing economy and sense of self in
the wider world. Chapter 4 outlines developments
during the Edward Heath years, particularly on the
Cold War and détente, Britain’s EEC accession and the
problems this caused Labour in identifying something
to oppose, hence the renegotiation of the ter ms of
entry and the 1975 referendum on EEC membership.
It moves on to study the swing to the left in Labour
foreign policy thinking on defence under the inf‌luence
of the (then) mightily inf‌luential National Executive
Committee.
The f‌ifth chapter examines the product of this
radical shift – unelectability in the 1980s.The 1983 and
1987 manifestos receive prolonged treatment as lenses
through which we see these disputes becoming the
public face of the Labour Party,the response being Neil
Kinnock’s post-1987 policy review. Chapter 6 sees the
culmination of the policy review leading to the mod-
ernisation of the Labour Party, slowly under John
Smith and then rapidly under Tony Blair and New
Labour from 1994.The Blair years are covered in terms
of Robin Cook’s controversial but not-at-all-new and
politically suicidal ‘ethical dimension’, the Kosovo
intervention of 1999, British–European relations and
international development. Before the conclusion,
chapter 7 is themed around Blair’s increasingly volatile
approach to the conduct of Britain’s external policy
after the shock of 9/11, the onset of the war on terror
and the ambition to change the Saddam Hussein
regime in Iraq. Finally, the transition from Blair to
Brown brought a more cautious,pragmatic approach to
foreign policy.
All in all this is a readable and well-researched
account which should be of use to scholars and
advanced researchers of foreign policy and contempo-
rary political history, and to students taking courses in
British politics and British foreign policy.
Oliver Daddow
(University of Leicester)
Political Participation in Britain: The Decline
and Revival of Civic Culture by Paul Whiteley.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 196pp.,£24.99,
ISBN 978 0 4039 4266 1
Paul Whiteley has conducted some of the most impor-
tant research on British political culture over the last
generation. This short book draws heavily on his
research to provide a synthesis of what we know about
the changing culture. It sketches in tur n the changing
nature of political values and attitudes; of participation
among the population at large; of participation among
the special segment that belongs to political parties; of
volunteering and social capital; and of the media and
participation.Two chapters address the big questions of
where Britain sits in comparison with other democratic
societies, and of the relationship between effective gov-
ernment and the character of civil society.Almond and
Verba’s classic study provides the benchmark for meas-
uring change.The tone is measured and Whiteley sticks
close to the detail of the data, but the message is clear:
change is afoot, and it is all in the direction of weak-
ening the civic culture. ‘Revival’ in the title refers to
Whiteley’s hopes, not to what is presently taking place.
This is now the standard work on the subject of
participation and political culture in Britain; it will be
plundered endlessly by textbook writers and by teach-
ers of British politics. It is also an impressive rejoinder
BOOK REVIEWS 289
© 2013 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2013 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2013, 11(2)

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