The Scope of Thatcherism and Foreign Policy

Abstract

It may be objected that, as Thatcherism is primarily an economic ideology, a distinctive Thatcherite foreign policy would be difficult to discern; that Prime Ministers sooner or later take a preponderant interest in foreign affairs, and that Mrs Thatcher is no different from her predecessors. However, what has made her approach to foreign policy unique is that she has conducted international relations in an era when the post-war consensus on British defence policy has collapsed, leaving a clear contrast between a Thatcherite pro-NATO, pro-nuclear stance and the unilateralism of the Labour Party (and sections of the Liberal Party). Moreover, her intensely nationalistic foreign policy is in clear contrast to the internationalism of all her post-war predecessors, with the possible exception of Anthony Eden at Suez. According to one backbench foreign policy specialist, ‘she didn’t have a foreign affairs back-ground like all other Conservative Prime Ministers and when she arrived, she didn’t have much foreign policy luggage, just patriotism and an anti-Soviet rhetoric’.¹