B.J.C. McKercher, Ph.D.Professor

Department of History

Brian McKercher

Publications:

Monographs

  • Transition of Power: Britains Loss of Global Preeminence to the United States, 1930-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 402.
  • Esme Howard: A Diplomatic Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 482.
  • The Second Baldwin Government and the United States, 1924-1929: attitudes and diplomacy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 271.

In Preparation

  • Crown of Thorns: British Foreign Policy and Its Makers, 1919-1939
  • With R. Prete, co-editor, Strategic Planning and the Origins of the First World War: New Perspectives on the Centenary of the July Crisis (Kingston, Montreal: Queens-McGill University Press).

Edited Works

  • with D.J. Moss, co-editor, Shadow and Substance in British Foreign Policy, 1895-1939.  Essays in honour of the late Professor C.J. Lowe (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1984), pp. 280.
  • with E.J. Errington, co-editor, The Vietnam War as History (New York: Praeger, 1990), pp. 196. 
  • editor, Anglo-American Relations in the 1920s: the struggle for supremacy (London and Edmonton: Macmillans and the University of Alberta Press, 1991), pp. 242.
  • with K.E. Neilson, co-editor, Go Spy the Land: Military Intelligence in History (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992), pp. 205.
  • editor, Arms Limitation and Disarmament, 1899-1939: restraints on war (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992), pp. 248
  • with A.H. Ion, co-editor, Military Heretics: studies in the unorthodox in military leadership (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993), pp. 246.
  • with L. Aronsen, co-editor, The North Atlantic Powers in a Changing World: Anglo-American-Canadian Relations, 1903-1956 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), pp. 298.
  • with Michael Dockrill, co-editor, Diplomacy and World Power: Studies in British Foreign Policy, 1890-1951 [a festschrift for Zara Steiner on her retirement] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 271.
  • with M.A. Hennessey, co-editor, The Operational Art: Developments in the Theory of War (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997), pp. 220.
  • with R. Legault, co-editor, Military Planning and the Origins of the Second World War in Europe (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000), pp.208.
  • E. Goldstein and B.J.C. McKercher, eds., Power and Stability. British Foreign Policy, 1865-1965) (London: Frank Cass, 2003), pp.348.
  • M.A. Hennessy and B.J.C. McKercher, eds., War in the Twentieth Century. Reflections at Century's End (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), 245 pp.

Paperback and Paperback Editions

  • Transition of Power: Britains Loss of Global Preeminence to the United States, 1930-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 402.  Paperback.
  • Esme Howard: A Diplomatic Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 482.  Paperback.
  • The Second Baldwin Government and the United States, 1924-1929: attitudes and diplomacy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 271.  Paperback
  • with Michael Dockrill, co-editor, Diplomacy and World Power: Studies in British Foreign Policy, 1890-1951 [a festschrift for Zara Steiner on her retirement] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 271. Paperback.
  • with L. Aronsen, co-editor, The North Atlantic Powers in a Changing World: Anglo-American-Canadian Relations, 1903-1956 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), pp. 298. Paperback.
  • with D.J. Moss, co-editor, Shadow and Substance in British Foreign Policy, 1895-1939.  Essays in honour of the late Professor C.J. Lowe (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1984), pp. 280.  Paperback.

Articles

  • Deterrence and the European Balance of Power: The Field Force and British Grand Strategy, 1934-1938, English Historical Review, 123(2008).
  • with Sonia Enjamio, 'Brighter Futures, Better Times: Britain, the Empire, and Anglo-American Economic Competition in Cuba, 1898-1920’, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 18(2007), 663-687.
  • A Certain Irritation:  The White House, the State Department, and the Desire for a Naval Settlement with Great Britain, 1927B1930', Diplomatic History, 31(2007), 829-63.
  • The Foreign Office, 1930-1939: Strategy, Permanent Interests, and National Security, Contemporary British History, 18(2004), 87-109.
  • Austen Chamberlain and the Continental Balance of Power: Strategy, Stability, and the League of Nations, 1924-29', Diplomacy and Statecraft, 14(2003), 207-36.
  • with Erik Goldstein, 'Power and Stability in British Foreign Policy, 1865-1965', Diplomacy and Statecraft, 14(2003), 1-22.
  • with Catherine Krull, 'The Press, Public Opinion, Arms Limitation, and Government Policy in Britain, 1932-1934: Some Preliminary Observation,' Diplomacy and Statecraft, 13(2002), 103-36.
  • with M.L. Roi, "Ideals and Punch-Bags: Conflicting Views of the Balance of Power and Their Influence on Interwar British Foreign Policy, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 12(2001), 47-78.
  • From Disarmament to Rearmament: British Civil-Military Relations and Policy-Making, 1933-1936', Defence Studies, 1(2001), 21-48.
  • Reckoning with the Myth of the American Expeditionary Force: The United States and the Allied War Coalition, 1917-1918', Reviews in American History, 23(1995), 284-89.
  • The Last Old Diplomat: Sir Robert Vansittart and the Verities of British Foreign Policy, 1903-1930', Diplomacy and Statecraft, 6(1995), 1-38.
  • The Politics of Naval Disarmament in Britain in the 1920s, Diplomacy and Statecraft, Vol..4, No.3(1993), 35-59.
  • "No Eternal Friends or Enemies": British Defence Policy and the Problem of the United States, 1919-1939', Canadian Journal of History, 28(1993), 257-93.
  • The Paths of Reason and Peace: Esme Howards Unpublished Manuscript on "Paderewski. Musician B Patriot B Statesman" Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 41(1993), 81-100.
  • The Richness and Diversity of International History: the new "Guides to Research and Research Materials", Canadian Journal of History, 27(1992), 521-31.
  • From Enmity to Cooperation: the second Baldwin government and the improvement of Anglo-American relations, November 1928-June 1929', Albion, 24(1992), 64-87.
  • "Our Most Dangerous Enemy": Great Britain Pre-eminent in the 1930s, International History Review, 13(1991), 751-83.
  • Reaching for the Brass Ring: recent historiography of American foreign relations in the interwar period, Diplomatic History, 15(1991), 565-98.
  • Diplomatic Equipoise: The Lansdowne Foreign Office, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and the global balance of power, Canadian Journal of History, 24(1989), 299-340.
  • Wealth, Power, and the New International Order: Britain and the American Challenge in the 1920s, Diplomatic History, 12(1988), 411-41.
  • "A dose of fascismo": Esme Howard in Spain, 1919-1924', International History Review, 9(1987), 555-85.
  • Belligerent Rights in 1927-1929: Foreign Policy Versus Naval Policy in the Second Baldwin Government, Historical Journal, 29(1986), 963-74.
  • A Sane and Sensible Diplomacy: Austen Chamberlain, Japan, and the Naval Balance of Power in the Pacific Ocean, 1924-1929', Canadian Journal of History, 21(1986), 187-213.
  • Austen Chamberlain's Control of British Foreign Policy, 1924-1929’, International History Review, 6(1984), 570-91.
  • with K.E. Neilson, "The Triumph of Unarmed Forces": Sweden and the Allied Blockade of Germany, 1914-1917', Journal of Strategic Studies, 7(1984), 178-99.
  • A British View of American Foreign Policy: The Settlement of Blockade Claims, 1924-1927', International History Review, 3(1981), 358-84.

Articles in Reference Books

  • Esme William Howard, first Baron of Penrith, in C. Matthews, ed., The Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
  • Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay, in C. Matthews, ed., The Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Book Chapters

  • Post-War Security, the League of Nations Question, and British Foreign Policy, 1917-1922, in M. „apolvi…, M. Stanová, and A, Rakoto, eds., Exiting War. Post-Conflict Military Operations. 6th International Conference, Military History Working Group, Bratislava, Slovakia (Bratislav, Château de Vicennes: Vojenský historický ústav, 2007), 259-68.
  • From Isolation to Intervention: Anglo-Canadian Defense Relations from the Canadian Perspective, 1935-1939, in R.S. Rush and W.W. Epley, eds., Multinational Operations: Alliances and International Military Cooperation. Past and Future. Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop of the Partnership for Peace's Consortium's Military History Working Group, Vienna, Austria (Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 2006), 85-91.
  • The Foreign Office, 1930-1939: Strategy, Permanent Interests, and National Security, in G. Johnson, ed., The Foreign Office and British Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century (London: Routledge, 2005), 87-109.
  • The Limitations of the Politician-Strategist: Winston Churchill and the German Threat, 1933-1939', in John Maurer, ed., Churchill and Strategic Dilemmas Before the World Wars. Essays in Honor of Michael I. Handel (London: Frank Cass, 2003), 88-120.
  • with M.A. Hennessy, Introduction, in M.A. Hennessy and B.J.C. McKercher, eds., War in the Twentieth Century. Reflections at Centurys End (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), 1-18.
  • Austen Chamberlain and the Continental Balance of Power: Strategy, Stability, and the League of Nations, 1924-29', in E. Goldstein and B.J.C. McKercher, eds., Power and Stability. British Foreign Policy, 1865-1965 (London: Frank Cass, 2003), 207-36.
  • with Erik Goldstein, Power and Stability in British Foreign Policy, 1865-1965', in E. Goldstein and B.J.C. McKercher, eds., Power and Stability. British Foreign Policy, 1865-1965 (London: Frank Cass, 2003), 1-22.
  • Cold War North Atlantic Triangle: Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, 1945-1990', in A. Capet, ed., The ASpecial Relationship:. La « relation spéciale » entre le Royaume-Uni et les États-Unis (Rouen: University of Rouen Press, 2003), 137-67.
  • The Canadian Way of Warfare, 1939-1945', in B. Horn, ed., Forging a Nation: Perpectives on the Canadian Military Experience (St Catherines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing, 2002), 123-34.
  • Reaching for the Brass Ring: The Recent Historiography of Interwar American Foreign Relations, in Michael J. Hogan, ed., Paths to Power: The Historiography of American Foreign Relations to 1941 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp.176-223.
  • Lost Opportunities; The Diplomacy of "Isolationism" in the 1930s, in Jonathan M. Nielson, ed., Speculations on American Foreign Policy and Diplomatic History: Interests, Ideals, and Power (Westport, CT: Praeger,, 2000), 67-107
  • Toward the Post-War Settlement: Winston Churchill and the Second Quebec Conference, in D.L. Woolner, ed., The Second Quebec Conference Revisited; Waging War, Formulating Peace: Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, 1944-1945 (New York: St. Martin's Press and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, 1998), 17-48.
  • Economic Warfare, in Hew Strachan, ed., Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 119-133.
  • Old Diplomacy and New: The Foreign Office in the Interwar Period, in Dockrill and McKercher, Diplomacy and World Power, 79-114.
  • The League of Nations and the Problem of Collective Security, 1919-1936', in U.M. Rüser, ed., The League of Nations, 1920-1946. Organization and Accomplishments (Geneva: the United Nations Library/League of Nations Archives, 1996), 66-73.
  • with L. Aronsen, Introduction: The North Atlantic Powers in a Changing World: Anglo-American-Canadian Relations, 1903-1973', in McKercher and Aronsen, North Atlantic Powers, 3-11.
  • with M.L. Dockrill, Preface, in Dockrill and McKercher, Diplomacy and World Power, xiii-xix.
  • World Power and Isolationism: the North Atlantic Triangle and the crises of the 1930s, in McKercher and Aronsen, North Atlantic Powers, 110-46.
  • Churchill, the European balance of power, and the USA, in R.A.C. Parker, ed., Sir Winston Churchill. Studies in Statesmanship (London: Brasseys, 1995), 42-64.
  • The Politics of Naval Arms Limitation in Britain in the 1920s, in Erik Goldstein and John Maurer, eds., The Washington Conference, 1921-22. Naval Rivalry, East Asian Stability and the Road to Pearl Harbor (London: Frank Cass, 1994), 35-59.
  • "Shield of Memory": the memoirs of the British Foreign-Policy-Making Elite, 1919-1939', in G.W. Egerton, ed., Political Memoir: Essays on the Politics of Memory (London: Frank Cass, 1994), 188-206.
  • with A.H. Ion, Introduction: Military Heretics, in McKercher and Ion, Military Heretics, 1-10.
  • Of Horns and Teeth: the Preparatory Commission and the World Disarmament Conference, 1926-1934', in McKercher, Arms Limitation and Disarmament, 173-201.
  • Introduction: Arms Limitation, Disarmament, and restraints on war, 1899-39', in McKercher, Arms Limitation and Disarmament, vii-xvi.
  • "A greater and higher ideal": Esme Howard, Imperial unity, and Canadian autonomy in foreign policy, 1924-1930', in Michael Graham Fry, editor, Power, Personalities, and Policies. Essays Honouring D. Cameron Watt (London: Frank Cass, 1992), 107-43.
  • with E.J. Errington, Introduction: The Vietnam War as History, in Errington and McKercher, The Vietnam War as History, pp.xi-xiv.
  • "The deep and latent distrust": the British Official Mind and the United States, 1919-1929', in McKercher, Anglo-American Relations in the 1920s, pp. 208-37.
  • Between Two Giants: Canada, the Coolidge Naval Conference, and Anglo-American Relations in 1927', in McKercher, Anglo-American Relations in the 1920s, pp. 81-124.
  • Introduction:  The Struggle for Supremacy in Anglo-American Relations in the 1920s, in McKercher, Anglo-American Relations in the 1920s, pp. 1-16.
  • Afterword: Foreign Policy and Military Planning  --   The Cold War and National Defence, 1945-1960', in R.G. Haycock and K.E. Neilson, eds., The Cold War and National Defence (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1990), pp.185-93.
  • The British Diplomatic Service in the United States and the Chamberlain Foreign Office's Perception of Domestic America:  images, reality, and diplomacy, in McKercher and Moss, Shadow and Substance in British Foreign Policy, pp. 221-47.
  • with D.J. Moss, Introduction, Shadow and Substance in British Foreign Policy, pp. 1-18.

Recent Papers

  • British Foreign Policy and the Lethality of the German Threat, 1895-1939, The Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the Conflict Studies and Human Rights Programme, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, 6 March 2009.
  • Eyre Crowe and British Blockade Policy, 1914-1918:Co-ordinating Foreign and Naval Policy in Wartime, to the Partnership for Peace Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 22 April 2008.
  • The First Test of Appeasement: British Views of the Anschluss, to the Conference 1938 B Krisenjahr in einem Jahrhundert der Krisen, Austrian National Defence Academy: Institute for Strategy and Security Policy, Vienna, Austria, 6 March 2008.
  • The Anglo-American Special Relationship, to Centro de Estudios sobre Estados Unidos, Universidad de La Habana, Havana, Cuba, 22 February 2008.
  • The Persistence of the Great Powers, to Strategic Operations Analysis, Strategic Joint Staff, Department of National Defence. Ottawa, 7 February 2008.
  • The Realities of Power Revisited: Anglo-American Relations in the Interwar Period, to the International History Institute, Boston University, Boston Massachusetts, 25 April 2007.
  • The German Problem in British Foreign Policy, to the European Studies Seminar, Department of History, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 17 April 2007
  • With Sonia Enjamio, "Anglo-American Economic Competition in Cuba, 1898-1939', International History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, England, 23 May 2006.
  • Sugar and Railroads: Britain, America, and Economic Competiton in Cuba, 1898-1919', Interdisciplinary Conference on Britain and the United States.  Imperialism in Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, and the Middle East, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, 15-18 May 2006.
  • Postwar Planning for Peace: The League of Nations and Allied War Aims, 1916-1919, to the Partnership for Peace Conference, Bratislava, Slovakia, 7 April 2006.
  • Britain, Canada, and the Crises of the late 1930s, to the Partnership for Peace Conference, Vienna, Austria, 5 April 2005.
  • Apuntes preliminares sobre las relaciones de Cuba con Canadá y Gran Bretaña, to the Seminario de Estudios Canadienses, Cáthedra des Estudios sobre Canadá, Universidad de La Habana, 18 March 2005..
  • Shade and Light: Reflexions on the German Question in British Foreign Policy, 1895-1939', The 2004 Excellence in Research Lecture, to the Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario, 25 January 2005.
  • Anglo-Canadian Defence Relations, 1935-1939, to the International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, Hawaii, 14 January 2005.
  • Strategy and Political Ambition: Churchill;, the National Government, and the German Threat, 1933-1939', to the Guest Lecture Series, Department of History, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, 29 January 2004.
  • The Foreign Office, 1930-1939: Strategy, Permanent Interests, and National Security, to the Conference on the Foreign Office in the Twentieth Century, Institute of Contemporary British History, University of London, 20 June 2003
  • The Continental Commitment and British Foreign Policy: the Strategy of the National Government, 1933-1938', to the Military History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, London, England, 4 February 2003.
  • The National Government and the Continental Commitment, 1934-1936', to the Scottish Centre for War Studies, Glasgow University, 28 January 2003.
  • The European Strategy of the Second Baldwin Government, 1924-1929', to the Modern History Seminar, Department of History, University of the West of England, Bristol, England, 26 November 2002.
  • Neville Chamberlain versus Winston Churchill: Domestic Politics, National Strategy, and the Conservative Party in the 1930s, to the Military History Seminar, All Souls College, Oxford University, 13 November 2002.
  • Cold War North Atlantic Triangle: Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, 1945-1990', to the Conference on the Anglo-American  Special Relationship, University of Rouen, Rouen, France, 6-7 November 2002
  • Austen Chamberlain and the European Balance of Power: Stability, Strategy, and the League of Nations, 1924-1929', to the International History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, London, England, 14 October 2002.
  • Winston Churchill Confronts Germany: The Conservative Party and Foreign Policy, 1933-1939', to the British International History Group Conference, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, 14 September 2002.
  • The Reality of Power (Revisited): Anglo-American Relations in the 1930s, Keynote Address, to the British International History Group Conference, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, 13 September 2002.