Introduction

Abstract

Increased engagement by the EU with the countries of East Asia over the last forty years has contributed to increased stability and security in East Asia. The United Kingdom was a major influence on this engagement, helping shape European involvement, and was in turn a major beneficiary, above all, of inward investment from East Asia. But far from being the great free trading nation of political claims and popular imagination, for most of the last seventy-five years, Britain’s approach to East Asia has been essentially neo-mercantilist. By examining the history of its engagement with the region over the last forty years through a series of case studies, I aim to show that while this did not change, over that time British policy changed from being primarily bilateral, to working with partners in the EU to achieve national objectives. This brought significant benefits for the country which would have been much harder, if not impossible, to achieve had Britain sought to act unilaterally.