This thesis shows that despite the rhetoric of universalism and internationalism used by the Royal Society, especially after the onset of Cold War, its policies and actions in the period 1945-75 remained closely allied to the interests of the British state. More specifically, in its foreign relations the Society mainly operated within a network of Western intergovernmental organisations that were a response to, and operated in similar ways, to Eastern Bloc organisations. While financially dependent on a Parliamentary grant-in-aid, they effectively carved out a role in the sphere of international scientific relations which was built upon an image of independence from the state. Thus, Society Officers and staff were able to mobilise a double-sided discourse of utility to, and independence from, the state. The association between the government of the day and the Society was at its most effective when a consensus existed between like-minded government administrators and Officers of the Society. A culture of collaboration and informal networks allowed them to build relationships and share ideas. The Society was perfectly designed to facilitate this culture, as its Fellows permeated government networks as individuals as much as they did as direct representatives of the Society. The status of Fellows conferred on them eligibility for a variety of positions, both formal and informal, within the elite infrastructure of national life. The thesis also shows that party political and ideological motivations often prefaced associations between Fellows and like-minded politicians or civil servants, but these associations were principally between economic liberals to the exclusion of far left scientists. However, the Society’s connections with the government were also motivated by reasons beyond party politics. The Society had an overarching aim to preserve the United Kingdom’s position as a scientific ‘Mecca’. In the shifting post-war landscape, in which the country became more dependent on outside help and conscious of its relative decline in economic and political power, the Society looked beyond national borders to stay in the competition. The thesis shows that Officers of the Society responded creatively to the changing geopolitical landscape as old spheres of influence waned, such as the Empire-Commonwealth, and new ones opened up, such as the European Community and the special relationship with America. The Society pursued these new opportunities with patriotic ambition, often prioritising relations that promised scientific rather than political gains, but always within a Western framework.

This thesis analyses British Jewish identity between 1945 and 1960 through the medium of Jewish youth movements. It argues that youth movements are key sites for the formation and transmission of communal identities into subsequent generations. It entails institutional studies of three Jewish youth organisations: the Jewish Lads’ Brigade, the Victoria Boys’ and Girls’ Club, and the Maccabi Union and is divided accordingly, with chapters devoted to each. The thesis examines the preferred identities that each club sought to impose on their members, using these identities as case studies for the wider British Jewish community. Each chapter addresses issues of national identity, gender, sexuality, faith, ethnicity, Jewish heritage and culture, Zionism, popular music and youth behaviour in order to construct an image of the manner in which various sections of British Jewry perceived their sense of identity. The results of the thesis demonstrate that British Jewish identity was fragmented and heterogeneous, with various sections of the community interpreting the over-arching communal identity in a number of different and at times contested ways. These interpretations were liminal in nature, existing at the boundaries of a variety of sub-identities, and drew on themes that were specific to both British Jews and to wider non-Jewish society, demonstrating that British Jews saw no distinction between the ‘British’ and ‘Jewish’ aspects of their identities. Such interpretations were highly dynamic and continued to evolve in the face of developing circumstances, both within and outside of British Jewry. In exploring the differing communal identities on offer within British Jewry, the thesis also charts the emergence and priorities of a new communal elite and suggests that it is more precise to speak of multiple British Jewish identities and communities than of a single communal bloc.

Depuis les années 2000, l’équilibre mondial se trouve confronté à deux menaces majeures, le réchauffement climatique et la fin annoncée des ressources en hydrocarbures, préfigurant un changement de paradigme énergétique imminent. Face aux inquiétudes grandissantes concernant l’équilibre des systèmes énergétiques futurs, de nombreux pays ont récemment vu dans l’industrie nucléaire la solution permettant d’allier système de production stable et faible pollution. Depuis 2006, le Royaume-Uni s’est également engagé dans la voie de la renaissance nucléaire. Toutefois, cette transformation soulève de nombreux questionnements pour une industrie qui a, au cours de l’ère néo-libérale des années 1990, subi de nombreuses transformations provoquées par un désengagement progressif de l’Etat à travers des phases de privatisation, d’agencification et de déstructuration. Selon les théories de la gouvernance, ces processus sont les symptômes d’une érosion pérenne et profonde des pouvoirs de l’Etat centralisateur, dont les leviers d’action ont été émoussés et qui ont été vidés de leur substance (hollowed out). Dans la mesure où la renaissance nucléaire britannique est conditionnée par un soutien étatique fort, le cas britannique constitue un exemple de choix afin de tester cette théorie. À travers une mise en perspective historique et selon une approche systémique, cette recherche analyse l’évolution des politiques électronucléaires britanniques de 1979 à 2015. Son objectif sera de démontrer que, depuis la fin des années 2000, la relance du nucléaire a déclenché la réactivation des mécanismes de leadership étatique, malgré la permanence des principes de primauté des marchés et de concurrence vertueuse. Il s’agira alors d’identifier ce nouveau paradigme qui a émergé depuis le milieu des années 2000, au sein des relations entre l’État britannique, la société civile, l’industrie nucléaire nationale et les marchés. Cette nouvelle dynamique se caractérise par des pratiques dorénavant hybrides d’action politique, telles que des formes innovantes de gouvernance technocratique, de néo-corporatisme et de néo-keynésianisme. / Since the turn of the century, the threats of climate change and the future depletion of the world’s oil reserves have triggered mounting concerns over a looming energy crisis, foreshadowing a shift in energy paradigm. Many industrial nations have recently turned to nuclear power as a possible low-carbon and stable means of producing electricity. In 2006 the UK became a new player in this worldwide nuclear renaissance. However, the UK nuclear industry was greatly weakened during the neo-liberal era of the 1990s, when its previously monopolistic structure was dismantled and privatised. According to governance theories, such practices underscore how the State has essentially been hollowed out and has seen its capacity to interfere in policy-making greatly eroded throughout the 1990s. Since new nuclear energy projects rely on strong state support, the British situation offers a case in point to test this governance theory. This research explores how the British nuclear power policies evolved from 1979 to 2015 from a historical and systemic angle. It reveals that, since the end of the 2000s, the UK State has managed to revive some of its leadership instruments, despite its attachment to free market principles. A new paradigm is therefore emerging in the relationship between the State, the citizens, the industrial sector and the electricity markets that can be characterised by new innovative and hybrid decision-making practices, involving forms of technocratic governance, neo-corporatism and neo-Keynesianism.

This study addresses the history of the static holiday caravan site in Britain. Commercial holiday camps, such as Butlin’s and Warner’s, have been seen by many to be the epitome of UK post-war working-class holiday making. But despite some shared characteristics and developmental roots, it is argued that static caravan sites were and are essentially a separate phenomenon, and this study analyses how they quickly became a significant and substantial aspect of post-war domestic tourism. This study also demonstrates that unlike commercial holiday camps, they spawned organically as a result of the agency of the post-war working-class, who were empowered by a growing sense of confidence, assertion and economic security, against the vision of the state-approved holiday camp model. Arising as they did as an affordable and more individualistic alternative (despite strict planning legislation that in its formulation had no concept of their future development), it is shown that static caravan sites continued to develop (with the benefit of key legislation) in a way that was not in many respects typical of other aspects of UK domestic tourism in the second half of the twentieth century, but did reflect wider patterns of working-class consumerism. This study also argues that as a major aspect of domestic tourism, static caravan parks did not follow the well-documented pattern of decline experienced by many domestic resorts and holiday forms, but exhibited a distinct tendency to adapt and change in a way that allowed manufacturers and parks to offer an up-to-date and enticing product in times of economic growth as well as times of recession. This has resulted in the static holiday caravan park becoming a significant aspect of British domestic holiday making.

The unusual way in which Britain's empire in Arabia was connected politically and constitutionally to the metropole, and the perceived – in some instances exaggerated – view of its strategic and economic importance, created both an opportunity and a justification for the British disengagement from the region to happen differently than in most of the rest of the empire. Strong personalities – in the metropole, amongst the men on the spot, and among local elites – played a crucial role in decision-making, and this thesis argues that informal networks from among these three constituencies worked in parallel to the established formal channels, impacting policy and driving the decision-making process. These networks initially contributed to a break in the political consensus within the metropole, but eventually also helped to restore it. The manipulation of local elites was the tool of choice, used by Britain (under both Conservative and Labour Governments) and its "men on the spot", in their endeavour to secure a lasting privileged position in Arabia. How key actors adapted to change, both in their own societies and in the international system, often determined the success or otherwise of their endeavours. This tangled tale of Britain’s last imperial stand in Arabia is far from being a unique case of how modern empires have handled unusual episodes of imperial retreat. The story has echoes in two other imperial exits of the late 20^th century – the French disengagement from Algeria from 1954 to 1962, and Russian efforts to maintain a privileged position in Georgia, immediately before and after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and since. Even if it is too early to draw firm conclusions, similar patterns – as the ones discussed in this thesis with regards to the end of the British Empire in Arabia – can also be observed in the other two cases, allowing us to draw some observations and lessons.