Between Empire and Continent : British Foreign Policy before the First World War

In the years leading up to the First World War, Great Britain sat at the center of global relations, and it applied its considerable diplomatic strength to break through the older alliances of European states. Historians have commonly interpreted these efforts as a reaction to Germany's aggressive foreign policy, but as this groundbreaking political history demonstrates, Britain's strategy instead arose from the complex interplay of national, continental and imperial considerations. Between Empire and Continent explores the intense political space that was prewar London, reconstructing the negotiations and disputes that drove British foreign policy while offering a persuasive new model for understanding the origins of the Great War.