Dockrill, Saki

(Saki Ruth Dockrill)

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Sussex, M.A.; Kyoto University, LL.M.; King's College London, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of War Studies, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, England. E-mail—saki.dockrill@kcl.ac.uk.

CAREER:

University of London, King's College, London, England, professor of contemporary history, chair of contemporary history and international security, department of war studies. Academic director for the European Union's Tempes-Tacis program, 1996-2001.

MEMBER:

International Institute for Strategic Studies, Royal Historical Society (fellow), British International Studies Association, British International History Group, Institute for the Study of the Americas (associate fellow), American Historical Association, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

AWARDS, HONORS:

John. S. Olin Fellowship, Yale University; senior research fellowship, Nobel Institute, 2002.

WRITINGS:

Britain's Policy for West German Rearmament, 1950-1955, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor) From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima: The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific, 1941-1945, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1994.

Eisenhower's New-Look National Security Policy, 1953-61, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor, with Gunter Bischof) Cold War Respite: The Geneva Summit of 1955, Louisiana University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 2000.

Britain's Retreat from East of Suez: The Choice between Europe and the World?, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2002.

The End of the Cold War Era: The Transformation of the Global Security Order, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(Editor, with Geraint Hughes) Palgrave Advances in Cold War History, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2006.

General editor of Macmillan Palgrave's "Cold War History" series, 1997-2006; general editor of Macmillan Palgrave's "Global Conflict and Security" series, 2006—; founding member and coeditor, Cold War History Journal; member, editorial board, Journal of Transatlantic Studies.

SIDELIGHTS:

Saki Dockrill is a professor of contemporary history at King's College in London who specializes in the Cold War era. Along with Gunter Bischof she edited the well-received compilation Cold War Respite: The Geneva Summit of 1955, which is comprised of thirteen essays that analyze the summit from the perspectives of the American, Soviet, British, French, German, and Austrian participants. The main ideas suggested throughout the essays include the importance of European nations in bringing the United States and the Soviets to the table and how domestic politics influenced the discussion of international politics. Ultimately, most of the contributors determine that the summit—the only one to involve the major European powers in the course of the cold war—was a failure, despite its noble efforts. "Cold War Respite shows conclusively why the cold war could not have ended at this time and should lay to rest the myth of Geneva as a lost opportunity," wrote Paul Rovig in the Presidential Studies Quarterly. Critics appreciated the contributors' use of both Western and Soviet documents, and Magnus Brechtken, writing in the Austrian History Yearbook, deemed it a "competently introduced, well-structured, and lucidly argued volume." According to Kathryn Statler on H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, the collection is "an important contribution to Cold War scholarship."

In Britain's Retreat from East of Suez: The Choice between Europe and the World?, Dockrill uses newly declassified documents, interviews, and private correspondence to analyze Britain's withdrawal from its military bases in India in 1947 and moves on to discuss Britain's role in the 1956 Suez Crisis in Egypt. In the first instance, the government asserted it had not "lost" India in its battle for independence, but rather decided to leave the country to focus on other objectives. At the same time, the British worked hard to give the appearance of stability in the region so as not to appear weak, despite the fact they were still reeling from the effects of World War II. Dockrill also considers Britain's retreat from Singapore in the late 1960s, a decision made by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, which was also a part of a shift towards its new agenda on the world stage. In contrast to previous historians, Dockrill downplays these events in the role of the devaluation of the sterling pound, an event she believes had more to do with U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Simon C. Smith, reviewing the book in the English Historical Review, compares the events of the 1960s with those of Britain in Iraq in the 2000s, stating that "one is struck by the contrasts, rather than the similarities, between the decision-making then and now." While Wilson sought to retreat from the Suez Canal in order to focus Britain's power in Europe, Tony Blair sided with the United States in the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving him marginalized at home and in Europe. The result was a sea change in Britain's role as a global power. Smith concluded that the "meticulously researched" book is both "thoughtful and thought-provoking."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, winter, 2004, Sean Greenwood, review of Britain's Retreat from East of Suez: The Choice between Europe and the World?, p. 722.

American Historical Review, April, 2003, Bruce Westrate, review of Britain's Retreat from East of Suez, pp. 579-580.

Austrian History Yearbook, 2002, Magnus Brechtken, review of Cold War Respite: The Geneva Summit of 1955, p. 298.

Choice, January, 1992, F. Coetzee, review of Britain's Policy for West German Rearmament, 1950-1955, p. 797; December, 1996, review of Eisenhower's New-Look National Security Policy, 1953-61, p. 675; March, 2001, D. Knisley, review of Cold War Respite, p. 1321; December, 2006, K. Eubank, review of Palgrave Advances in Cold War History, p. 695.

English Historical Review, February, 2004, Simon C. Smith, review of Britain's Retreat from East of Suez, p. 270.

Historian, summer, 1998, Lorraine M. Lees, review of Eisenhower's New-Look National Security Policy, 1953-61, p. 855.

International Affairs, January, 2003, Michael F. Hopkins, review of Britain's Retreat from East of Suez, pp. 214-225.

International History Review, May, 1997, Tony Shaw, review of Eisenhower's New-Look National Security Policy, 1953-61, p. 455; December, 2001, Rolf Steinninger, review of Cold War Respite, p. 996; June, 2003, Keith Robbins, review of Britain's Retreat from East of Suez, p. 491.

Journal of Military History, January, 2002, James D. Marchio, review of Cold War Respite, p. 263.

Presidential Studies Quarterly, June, 2001, Paul Rorvig, review of Cold War Respite, p. 385.

Reference & Research Book News, September, 1994, review of From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima: The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific, 1941-1945, p. 4; August, 1997, review of Eisenhower's New-Look National Security Policy, 1953-61, p. 179; February, 2003, review of Britain's Retreat from East of Suez, p. 32.

Times Literary Supplement, December 27, 1996, William G. Hyland, review of Eisenhower's New-Look National Security Policy, 1953-61, p. 6.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, http://www/h-net.org/ (December 22, 2000), Kathryn Statler, review of Cold War Respite; (December 20, 2002), James Gump, review of Britain's Retreat from East of Suez.