FCO historians are responsible for editing Documents on British Policy Overseas (DBPO) and for overseeing the publication of FCO Internal Histories.
DBPO comprises three series of diplomatic documents, focusing on major themes in foreign policy since 1945, and drawn principally from the records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The latest volumes, published in Series III, are composed almost wholly of documents from within the thirty-year ‘closed period’, which would otherwise be unavailable to the public.
Since the early 1960s, several Internal Histories have been prepared by former or serving officers, the majority of which concentrated upon international developments and negotiations in which the UK has been directly involved. These were initially intended for use within the FCO, but some of the more substantial among them, studies that offer fresh insights into British diplomacy, are now being declassified for publication.
Edited
By Keith Hamilton, Patrick Salmon
July 17, 2014
A fascinating collection of British foreign policy documents covering reactions in Whitehall to political change and revolution in the Mediterranean basin from 1973 to 1976. This volume contains many previously unpublished documents, including Joint Intelligence Committee papers, which cast new ...
Edited
By Tony Insall, Patrick Salmon
November 07, 2013
This book is a collection of diplomatic documents describing the development of British relations with the Nordic countries between the end of the Second World War and the defeat of the Labour Government in 1951. The end of the Second World War brought hopes of building a new society in Western ...
Edited
By Richard Smith, Patrick Salmon, Stephen Twigge
October 25, 2013
This volume examines British policy towards the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. The documents in this volume, many released into the public realm for the first time, describe the development of British policy towards the Soviet Union during the ...
Edited
By Patrick Salmon, Keith Hamilton, Stephen Robert Twigge
February 10, 2012
This volume is comprised of a collection of diplomatic documents covering British reactions to, and policy towards, the collapse of the German Democratic Republic and the unification of Germany in 1989-90. The peaceful unification of Germany in 1989-90 brought a dramatic end to the Cold War. This ...