Britains, the Balkans, and politics of the war-time alliance : great power collaboration and the Pre-Percentages Agreement of May 1944

Abstract

This study explores aspects of British policy towards the Balkans in the wake of the Moscow Conference of October 1943, and in particular the attempts of the senior policy-makers to formulate a viable political strategy for that region in the first six months of 1944. It considers certain questions - what did 'the Balkans' mean to the British; who were the key individuals involved in policy formulation; what impact did on-going events have upon those individuals (and therefore the plans they submitted for consideration); and what controversies and debates did this involve them in - and to resolve two key issues: on a general level, how and when did the British begin to shift policy from a war-time to a post-war orientation; and, more specifically, how did the British approach the question of the post-war settlement as it affected the Balkan region. At the same time, and most importantly, it undertakes a detailed analysis of the 'Politics of the War-time Alliance' - an examination of Britain's relations with her Great Power Allies, and in particular the Soviet Union, which, it argues, were far more influential in shaping British policy than local developments 'on the ground'.

Bringing these various themes together, the study examines the background to and circumstances of the Anglo-Soviet 'Spheres of Activity' Arrangement of May 1944, and the diplomatic exchanges that followed. It argues that, far from wanting to divide the Balkans into classical 'spheres of influence' (as has often been suggested), the British proposal was little more than a short term military arrangement, designed to persuade their allies (and in particular Soviet Russia) to adhere to the policy of collaboration agreed at the 1943 Moscow Conference.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata