UK and EU Integration

Question 1

British cold war foreign policy. Strategy, Objectives, Problems.

Answer 1

Strategy
Churchills 3 circles - Empire, Anglo-American ‘special relationship’, Europe

Objectives
Anti communism
Preserving Britain’s internal position

Problems
relative decline
economic weakness
2 dominant superpowers
Developing world nationalism
‘Overstretch’

Question 2

How did Britain view Europe?

Answer 2

Initially a drain on British resources
Reluctance to ‘pool sovereignty’
EC membership vetoed twice by de Gaulle 1973

Series of problems:
Re negotiation of terms of membership
BBQ British Budgetary Question
Thatcher Bruges Speech (09/1988) - anti transition to a Federal Europe.

Question 3

Britain’s place in the cold war world

Answer 3

‘Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role’ - Dean Acheson, 1962

PM Thatcher Falklands War 1982 - ‘we have ceased to be a nation in retreat’

Decline ends in the 1980s. Adjustments complete, Transformation of an empire, EU membership and corrected economic weaknesses.

Question 4

Tony Blair 1999

Answer 4

Britain’s role is to now ‘build our future not as a superpower but a pivotal power, as a power at the crux of alliances and international politics’

Question 5

British post-cold war foreign policy

Answer 5

Anglo-American relationship; Europe

Institutionalized power - EU, NATO, OSCE, IMF

Consistent EU aims for peace and stability, economic prosperity, outward looking, ‘power enhancing’ mechanism, and a ‘Europe of Nation States’

Question 6

Major and Blair on Post Cold War policy, key differences

Answer 6

Blair’s EU policy was not as constrained by internal party considerations; major had key Eurosceptics in cabinets. EU friendly rhetoric was helped by landslide majority.
However for Major this was the reverse; opt out of social charter of the Treaty on the European Union
Accept greater use of QMV and limited communautarisation - e.g. asylum policy
Most radical shift under Blair - St Malo agreement 1998 - British acceptance of EU military role

Question 7

1990s post cold war policy consistencies

Answer 7

Britain at ‘the heart of Europe’
Common agricultural policy reform, enlargement and completion of the single European market.
Promote wealth and employment through deregulation and flexible labor markets
Encourage EU crackdowns on poor implementation and wasteful use of resources.
A self-exclusion Britain:
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); protection of Britain’s borders.

Question 8

3 consistent British strategies towards the EU

Answer 8

Commitment to enhance EU foreign policy to offset ‘self exclusion’ from the economic and monetary union (EMU)
Break exclusiveness of the Franco-German alliance
Use Atlantic intermediary role to promote British influence within EU and with the US

Question 9

British balancing of EU and US relationships

Answer 9

Britain support EU vis-á-vis on Kyoto Protocol, comprehensive test ban treaty, international criminal court, trade disputes.
Britain support US on primacy of NATO in European security
Military action in Afghanistan; regime in Iraq and subsequent administration of the country

Question 10

May and Johnson - the Brexit agenda

Answer 10

EU is more important to Britain than it had been 50 years ago
British institutional influence
US overtly supported remain; Trump backtrack on this
National sovereignty, media representation, government instability

EU-UK Trade and cooperation agreement
Regularizing BREXIT - European right to reside and work, N. Ireland protocol/Windsor framework
Rebuilding EU relations and foreign policy cooperation
Reducing reliance on EU ‘Global Britain’