In 1945 Britain emerged from the Second World War exhausted and debilitated, but still a major global power, with enormous strategic commitments, imperial responsibilities and a sense of historical destiny as a major economic and political influence. This book charts how this role and self-image changed and how abruptly in 1945 the United States assumed Britain's mantle of world leader. Taylor provides an alternative interpretation of how the Cold War arose, and how the reordering of the global economic, political and strategic system in the post-war world came about. It is essential reading for political geographers, historians, international relations experts and political scientists.

Peter J. Taylor is Professor of Human Geography at Northumbria University and Emeritus Professor in Geography at Loughborough University, UK.

Preface
Prologue: The Returns of Geopolitics
Part I: Introduction
1. The Concept of Geopolitical Transition
2. A Contested History
Part II: All Change - 1945
3. Nineteen Forty-Five in Braudellien Perspective
4. Alternative Worlds in 1945
5. Britain at the Turning Point
Part III: Britain's Crisis of Power
6. The Geoeconomic Dilemma
7. The Geopolitical Dilemma
8. The Geostrategic Dilemma
Part IV: Discussion
9. Questions of Concern
10. The Salience of the Geopolitical Transition Concept
Bibliography
Index