Berlin

Mi. 05.11.2014, 18:30 bis 20:00

Vortrag

Imperialism in the Age of Decolonization

British Policy in the Persian Gulf during the 1960s

Großbritannien-Zentrum der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Mohrenstr. 60
10117 Berlin
Berlin Brandenburg

Beschreibung:

Until 1971, the small oil-rich states on the arabian shore of the Persian Gulf, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the seven Trucial States (today’s United Arab Emirates) remained under the military protection of Great Britain and formed part of its dwindling informal empire in the Middle East. Anything but an imperial backwater, the Gulf States were of crucial economic and strategic importance to Britain. The exploration of their oil resources, mainly by British Petroleum and Shell, significantly benefitted Britain’s balance of payments, while the membership of the Gulf States in the Sterling Area contributed to the stability of the British currency. Britain’s informal empire in the Persian Gulf was strongly supported by the US Government.

However, while a continued presence in the Persian Gulf was, at least until 1967, regarded as essential by British policy-makers, the preservation of this position presented them with numerous challenges at a time when the British Empire was rapidly disintegrating and openly imperialist actions were likely to attract international criticism. Sometimes, acting like an imperialist power in times of decolonization amounted to a policy of trying to square a circle. Presenting her book, ‘British Policy in the Persian Gulf, 1961-1968. Conceptions of Informal Empire’, which was published in 2013 with Palgrave Macmillan, Helene von Bismarck will explain the motivation, the methods and the limits of British imperialism in the Persian Gulf during the last decade of Britain’s presence in the region.

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