In the early 1960s, with the sun dipping beyond its imperial horizon, the ex-US Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, famously remarked that Great Britain had lost an empire and had not yet found itself a role. By the early years of the new millennium, however, any sense of uncertainty had been firmly dispelled. Under a New Labour government keen to elevate Britain’s position on the international stage, the country had found itself cast as the supporter-in-chief of the much-vaunted US ‘war on terror’. Launched by the US in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the overarching objective of this...

British foreign policy after 1945 evolved within a strategic context of progressive imperial and economic decline, Continental moves towards the integration of Europe, and the ‘special relationship’ with the US. One of its central aspects, as the post-war period unfolded, was a desire on the part of British governments to establish closer ties with the US as a means of compensating for Britain’s decline as an independent Great Power. Yet relations with both Europe and the US remained variable during this time, and the problems of decolonisation and decline continued unabated. The coming to power of the New Labour government...

The onset of the war on terror was shaped by both long-term and immediate factors. In the first of these, the geo-strategic dynamics of Cold War rivalry in the Middle East helped to create the conditions for the globally oriented threat of radical Islamic terrorism, while the subsequent collapse of Soviet Communism produced a discernible shift to a new imperialist strategy by the US during the 1990s. The second series of factors centred on the particular characteristics of the US and British governments during the early years of the twenty-first century. In the former, a Republican administration headed by George...

Following the overthrow of the Taliban, the war on terror moved rapidly towards its second phase. The principal theme in this was the pursuit of regime change in Iraq, ostensibly as a means of defusing the threat posed by its illegal weapons of mass destruction, but in reality a policy designed to enhance the global influence of the US, not least by promoting the spread of free market democracy in the Middle East and by establishing its credible willingness to use force. For the New Labour leadership, the focus on WMD was adopted as a strategic means of overcoming the...

Along with military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the central features of the war on terror was the use of extra-legal measures by the Bush administration. These involved indefinite detentions at Guantánamo Bay and so-called ‘black site’ facilities at secret locations around the world, the use of extraordinary renditions and the deployment of ‘controversial’ interrogation techniques, amounting, in some cases, to the use of torture. As details about these practices emerged, New Labour officials came under increasing pressure over their tacit support for, as well as their complicity in such activities. At the same time, developments in the...

The context for Britain’s role in the war on terror shifted significantly during the course of 2006. As conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq continued to deteriorate, the government’s strategies in both theatres underwent considerable adjustment. While the military campaign in the former was dramatically expanded as part of an effort to combat the ongoing resurgence of the Taliban, in Iraq officials began to emphasise a tentative move towards withdrawal. This created tensions with Washington, whose strategic approach had now embraced a large-scale troop surge designed to quell the ever-rising violence of the insurgency. Events elsewhere in the region also had...

Washington’s abandonment of a new imperialist strategy in favour of a military surge in Iraq was not only ambiguous in its effects, but clashed with the divergent move towards a military withdrawal that was now being pursued by the New Labour government. Uncertainty over the status of Britain’s mission in Iraq was also reflected in growing confusion over the nature of the military campaign in Afghanistan, public support for which was now in steady decline. With the political fortunes of the Prime Minister facing a similar challenge, Brown turned to the issue of national security as a means of bolstering...

The end of the Bush regime, and its replacement by a new Democrat administration headed by Barack Obama, was hailed as a sign of positive directional change in the war on terror. Yet despite key areas of difference, continuities in US policy remained apparent. The most significant of these centred on the war in Afghanistan, where the shifting nature of the military strategy was accompanied by an increasing escalation in the conflict. In Britain, where domestic support for the campaign remained weak, ministers continued to emphasise the national security imperatives of defeating the Taliban in an ever more forlorn attempt...

The launching of the war on terror in September 2001 was shaped by two immediate factors: the new imperialist trajectory adopted by the US from the end of the Cold War, and the specific form and character of the George W. Bush administration. Seeking to craft a new world order more conducive to US interests, Washington’s response to the al-Qaeda attacks of 9/11 was driven by military measures designed to expand free market democracy in the Middle East and to establish a credible willingness to use force in defence of its interests. In this, the Bush regime was assisted by...