Anglo-French Nuclear Diplomacy In Early 1960s(1960-1962)

In the early 1960s, Britain came into diplomatic contact with France on the issue of nuclear weapons collaboration, which lasted for three years. The bilateral nuclear diplomacy between the two countries was operated in the context of the nuclear politics which arose in the late 1950s.To a great extent, the nuclear politics determines the specific process of the bilateral nuclear diplomacy. From the outset, the Anglo-French concerned not merely with the cooperation in the field of nuclear technology,but with the coalition politics in NATO,the domestic political struggle around the nuclear issue and returns from their nuclear cooperation.Based on the related diplomatic files on nuclear diplomacy between Britain and France from the Macmillan Cabinet documents, this dissertation is trying to uncover the specific process of the nuclear diplomacy in the early 1960s as complete as possible. The method adopted in the dissertation is historical analysis. There are two important clues running through the whole process of Anglo-French nuclear cooperation negotiations in early 1960s:one is.the triangular interaction among the Britain,France and the United States and the other is the bilateral interaction between foreign policy and domestic politics.The dissertation falls into three parts:perface,main text and concluding remarks. The perface covers Chapter One, in which the present study of the Anglo-French nuclear diplomacy in the early 1960s both at home and abroad are introduced, and the research perspective and deficiency of the dissertation are also pointed out..Chapter Two to Chapter Four consists of the main text. Chapter Two is the analyzing of the important historical background, especially the analyzing of nuclear politics'significant effects on the Anglo-French nuclear diplomacy in the early 1960s.Chapter Three is the pivot of this dissertation. In this chapter, the author attempts to illustrate the whole process of nuclear diplomacy between Britain and France in the 1960s.Based on the different factors that promote the process, the Anglo-French nuclear diplomacy in the early 1960s can be divided into three stages. The first stage is how to promote nuclear diplomacy, mainly about their interaction on the Blue Streak ballistic missile issue. From the bilateral diplomatic contacts, Britain hoped to find out the specific ways that both improve the Anglo-French relationship and increase the degree of the independence of British nuclear forces which would be weakened by the cancellation of Blue Streak missile; while France wanted to get nuclear assistance in order to accelerate the building process of its national nuclear deterrent force. The second stage is the stage that how to deal with the multilateral nuclear plan which was put forward by America. Britain and France strongly opposed the multilateral nuclear plan. Britain tried to promote a tripartite Anglo-American nuclear cooperation agreement, which not only can resist the multilateral nuclear program effectively, but also meet the demands of France. However, France sought to ease the criticism which exerted negative impact on the building of French national nuclear force. The third stage is the stage that they sought the solution to break the deadlock in the UK-EEC negotiations. In virtue of summit meetings, the two sides negotiated most frequently on the issue of Anglo-French nuclear cooperation. Center on the Anglo-French nuclear deal, Britain, France and the United States bargained with each other in a complicated way.Chapter Four mainly focuses on why the Anglo-French nuclear diplomacy failed finally. As for the important reasons, the dissertation argues that different cognitive of the "independent nuclear force", American's strong objection as well as the majority members of Macmillan Cabinet's objection can account for that failure.