Failed Alliances of the Cold War ：Britain's Strategy and Ambitions in Asia and the Middle East

Publication subTitle ：Britain's Strategy and Ambitions in Asia and the Middle East

Author： Dimitrakis Panagiotis

Publisher： I.B.Tauris‎

Publication year： 2011

E-ISBN: 9780857721266

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9781848859746

Subject： D819 world diplomacy, international relations

Keyword：亚洲史,现代史（1917年~）

Language： ENG

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Description

The Cold War was a period of intense political rivalry, in which diplomacy and international relations in Asia and the Middle East acquired huge global significance. In this study, Panagiotis Dimitrakis explores British policy towards SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organisation) and CENTO (CentralTreaty Organisation). Designed in the 1950s to counter the Soviet Union's attempts to expand its global influence, these alliances with Asian and Middle Eastern powers were at the centre of western efforts to maintain regional influence. Yet they failed to bring together the differing aims and ambitionsof their regional members and were dissolved in 1977 and 1979 respectively. This study examines the Cold War policies of the United States, Iran and Pakistan as well as the effect of British diplomacy on the war in Vietnam and SEATO planning. The formation of CENTO in 1959 - an alliance comprising Britain, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan with the support of the USA - was one of the grandest Cold War gestures of solidarity. The emergence of new diplomatic records, however, questions the true commitment of Britain and the United States to come to the defence of their new allies in Asia and the Middle East. In fact, even in cases of aggression on the part of the Soviet Union, the priorities of Britain and the USA were ultimately self-serving, despite their Cold War rhetoric of ideological unity and common purpose. As the 1950s came to a close, serious irreconcilable differences in the defence