Between Europe and the Anglosphere - Britain's difficult quest for a new role

„Great Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role“ as Dean Acheson, US Secretary of State under President Truman, remarked in a speech to West Point graduates in early December 1962. Ten years and two abortive attempts later, in 1973, the United Kingdom managed to enter what was then called the European Economic Community (today the European Union), which it decided to leave again forty three years later after a popular referendum in June 2016. The political fallout both from the referendum results and from the ongoing negotiations about the details of Brexit suggests that the debate about Britain‘s role in the world is far from over. Recently, it has focussed on the major challenges Britain faces after Brexit: Can she become a global hub for trade and financial services, in short a global Britain? How close to Europe, namely the European Union, is she going to be? Will she remain a major player in international politics and continue to function as a bridge between Europe and America? Will she be able to rise (again) as the centre of the Anglosphere, i.e. an (imagined) community of the (major) English-speaking parts of today’s multipolar world?
And last but not least: Can meeting these challenges help to make Britain ‘great’ again?
These are the issues that this class will explore before the backdrop of Britain’s rise to world power status from the 18th to the 20th century.

A more detailed draft schedule will follow in the second half of September.
Meanwhile I recommend for preparatory reading:
Michael Kenny, Nick Pearce: Shadows of Empire. The Anglosphere in British Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press 2018 (ISBN 978-1-5095-1661-2)
Brendan Simms: Britain’s Europe. A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation. London: Penguin Books 2017 (ISBN 978-0-141-98390-5), chapters 7 – 10.