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The new international order

During the war the Allies had started to think of ways in which a new world order could replace the failed League of Nations. Even before it joined the war against the Axis powers, the United States had agreed an "Atlantic Charter" with Britain. The basis of this new charter was US President Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms": freedom of speech and expression; freedom of worship; freedom from fear; and freedom from want.

At the end of the war the victorious Allies created the United Nations, which expressed the ideas of the Atlantic Charter. The Allies formed themselves into a "Security Council", into which they invited some less powerful nations. They hoped that the success of wartime alliance could be carried into peacetime. But this depended on a continuing feeling of common purpose, which no longer existed. The idea of the four allies (Soviet Union, United States, France and Britain) working together for the recovery of central Europe collapsed. Europe became divided into two, the eastern part under communist Soviet control and the western part under a capitalist system protected by US power.

In 1948-9 the Soviet Union tried to capture West Berlin by stopping all roads and rail traffic to it, and it was only saved by a huge airlift of essential supplies from the West, which lasted almost one year. As a result of the struggle for West Berlin, opposing alliances were formed: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of the Western nations, and the Warsaw Pact of the Eastern bloc.

In 1950 the United Nations faced new difficulties in the Far East. Troops of North Korea, which was under Soviet control invaded South Korea, which was under US control. British troops formed part of the United Nations force which defended South Korea. Only fear on both sides limited the level and extent of the war. But while Britain became more fearful of Soviet intentions, it also became more unhappy with the forceful attitude of its ally, the United States.

British foreign policy was not only concerned with the danger from the Soviet Union. It was also concerned with finding a new part to play in a fast-changing world, and getting used to changing relations with its friends, particularly with the United States, with the European countries, and with members of the Commonwealth, a new association of former British possessions.

Britain still considered itself to be a world power, and this confidence was strengthened by three important technical developments in the 1950s which increased its military strength. These developments were in research into space, in the design of nuclear weapons, and in the design of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Britain's leadership in nuclear power resulted in the development of nuclear weapons. But it also led to the building of the first nuclear energy power station in the world in 1956. All these military and scientific developments drew Britain more closely to the United States, both for political and financial reasons.

However, by the early 1960s Britain was increasingly interested in joining the new European Community (EC). Britain wanted to join the Community because of the realisation that it had lost political power internationally, and because of a growing desire to play a greater part in European politics.

It was in Egypt chat Britain's weakening international position was most obvious. Until 1956 Britain had controlled the Suez Canal, but in that year Egypt decided to take it over. Britain, together with France and Israel, attacked Egypt. But the rest of the world, in particular the United States loudly disapproved of Britain's action, and forced Britain to remove its troops from Egypt. Until Suez, Britain had been able to deal with the United States and the Soviet Union as an equal, but after Suez this was no longer possible. From now on, Britain was viewed in a new light, not only by the two Great Powers, but also by many weaker countries in Asia and Africa, particularly by the Arab countries. They began to challenge Britain's authority more openly. Even more importantly, Suez opened a painful debate inside Britain, in which politicians tried to define Britain's new international role after such a humiliating political defeat.