A fundamental truth about British power in the nineteenth century and beyond was that Britain was a global power. Her international position rested on her global economic, naval and political presence; and her foreign policy operated on a global scale. This volume throws into sharp relief the material elements of British power, but also its less tangible components, from Britain's global network of naval bases to the vast range of intersecting commercial, financial and intelligence relationships, which reinforced the country's political power. Leading historians reshape the scholarly debate surrounding the nature of British global power at a crucial period of transformation in international politics, and in so doing they deepen our understanding of the global nature of British power, the shifts in the international landscape from the high Victorian period to the 1960s, and the changing nature of the British state in this period.

‘… a valuable addition to the literature on Britain’s world-power century. Its twin themes are the almost infinite complexities of Britain’s accumulated commitments as a global power, and the advantages conferred by its (and especially London’s) role as the hub of global communications for much of the nineteenth century and a good part of the twentieth.’John Darwin, The English Historical Review