Description: Britain and the Last Tsar is a fundamental re-interpretation of British foreign and defense policy before the First World War. The currect orthodoxy asserts that the rise of an aggressive and powerful Germany forced Britain--a declining power--to abandon her traditional policy of avoiding alliances and to enter into alliance with Japan (1902), France (1904), and Russia (1907) in order to contain the German menace. In a controversial rejection of this theory, Keith Neilson argues that Britain was the pre-eminent world power in 1914 and that Russia, not Germany, was the principal long-term threat to Britain's global position. This original and important study shows that only by examining Anglo-Russian relations and eliminating an undue emphasis on Anglo-German affairs can an accurate picture of Britain's foreign and defense policy before 1914 be gained.
Review Quotes: "...Britain and the Last Tsar is a needed contribution to our understanding of Anglo-Russian relations"--History
"The first to deal comprehensively with Anglo-Russian relations to 1917...contains a wealth of information about the perceptions of Russia by Britain's elite in the Foreign Office and diplomatic service, in successive Cabinets, in the press, and in contemporary popular novels. It is also a thorough examination of Anglo-Russian military and diplomatic relations from 1894 to 1917, based on meticulous research in British archives and secondary material. As such it will long remain the standard work on the subject."--The Albion"[A] well-researched, if conventional, diplomatic history, which makes a compelling argument for the need to view the British Empire's security concerns in a global context."--The Historian