Prior to World War I, Britain was at the center of global relations, utilizing tactics of diplomacy as it broke through the old alliances of European states. Historians have regularly interpreted these efforts as a reaction to the aggressive foreign policy of the German Empire. However, as Between Empire and Continent demonstrates, British foreign policy was in fact driven by a nexus of intra-British, continental and imperial motivations. Recreating the often heated public sphere of London at the turn of the twentieth century, this groundbreaking study carefully tracks the alliances, conflicts, and political maneuvering from which British foreign and security policy were born.

Andreas Rose teaches Modern History at the University of Bonn. His research interests include the international history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the history of Britain and Germany. His recent publications include Die Außenpolitik des Wilhelminischen Kaiserreichs, 1890-1918 (2013) and, as coeditor, The Wars before the Great War: Conflict and International Politics before the Outbreak of the Great War (2015).

List of Tables and Illustrations
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements

Foreword by Sir Christopher Clark

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Public Sphere in Edwardian London
Chapter 2. The Policy of Drift?: Balance of Power, Concert of Europe, or Political Power Blocs?
Chapter 3. Safety First: The Politics of Defence and the Realities behind Diplomacy
Chapter 4. Imperial Defence or Continental Commitment?
Chapter 5. Foreign Policy under Lansdowne and Balfour
Chapter 6. The Myth of Continuity: Foreign Policy under Edward Grey
Chapter 7. The Committee of Four: The German Peril Revisited
Chapter 8. At the Cost of Stability: The Anglo-Russian Convention and its European Implications
Chapter 9. 'More Russian than the Russians'? British Balkan Diplomacy and the Annexation of Bosnia 1908/9¿

Conclusion and Perspectives: The Triad of British Foreign Politics

Bibliography
Index