Someone Else's Empire: British Illusions and American Hegemony

Someone's Else's Empire coolly reassesses Britain's relationship with the United States. Elite descriptions of Britain's position in the world ('punching above our weight') are untenable, Tom Stevenson argues. Yet there is a refusal, in most parts of society, to examine the assumptions behind them. Half a century after British withdrawal from "east of Suez," why has the Indo-Pacific tilt become a Whitehall priority? Why are newly opened Persian Gulf bases working side by side with Saudi and Emirati forces engaged in the catastrophic war on Yemen?

The impetus for so many decisions about British foreign policy comes from a desire to maintain lieutenant rank with Washington. But British leaders and defence specialists tend to dislike seeing Britain framed by American power. A great effort is required to clear away the build-up of irrelevant, nostalgic detritus around "Global Britain." Stevenson looks at the infrastructure of a US world order re-energised by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and fits the UK into the picture without the usual euphemisms. It is one thing to station military forces around the world to maintain your empire, he observes, but quite another to do so for someone else's.

Author: Tom Stevenson
Publisher: Verso
Published: 11/07/2023
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 9.43h x 6.39w x 0.67d
ISBN13: 9781804291481
ISBN10: 180429148X
BISAC Categories:
- History | Europe | Great Britain | 21st Century
- Political Science | World | European
- Political Science | Geopolitics

About the Author
Tom Stevenson is a contributing editor at the London Review of Books where he writes about energy, defence and international politics. He has reported from Ukraine, the Middle East and North Africa for the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Financial Times and the BBC.