A Missed Opportunity?: Britain and the Negotiations for an Anglo-French Alliance in 1921-1922

Abstract

Key decision-makers on both sides of the Channel agreed that an alliance between Britain and France in the aftermath of the First World War would represent a major step towards securing their hard-won victory and achieving European stability. Yet negotiations during and after the 1919 Paris Peace Conference failed to conclude terms satisfactory to both states. This paper investigates British attitudes towards a possible pact with France, concentrating in particular on the discussions that occurred in late 1921 and early 1922 which revealed much about the perceptions and objectives of the two powers now most responsible, in the absence of the United States, for executing the Versailles settlement with Germany. Although personalities may have played a minor role in the failure of these negotiations it suggests that the more fundamental missed opportunity was the inability of both states to recognise that a ‘return to normalcy’ was not a viable option.

Keywords

• diplomacy
• alliance
• security
• perception
• mistrust