page_title: Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
section_title: Major international disputes since 1945
hierarchical_section_title: Foreign relations of the United Kingdom / Major international disputes since 1945
caption_attribution_description: العربية: دورية انجليزية راجله في المعلا الرئيسي
context_page_description: The diplomatic foreign relations of the United Kingdom are conducted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, headed by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. The Prime Minister and numerous other agencies play a role in setting policy, and many institutions and businesses have a voice and a role.
  The United Kingdom was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries, most notably during the so-called "Pax Britannica"—a period of totally unrivaled supremacy and unprecedented international peace during the mid-to-late 1800s. The country continued to be widely considered a superpower until the Suez crisis of 1956, and this embarrassing incident coupled with the loss of the empire left the UK's dominant role in global affairs to be gradually diminished. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom remains a great power and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a founding member of the G7, G8, G20, NATO, OECD, WTO, Council of Europe, OSCE, and the Commonwealth of Nations, the latter being a legacy of the British Empire. The UK had been a member state of the European Union since 1973.
context_section_description: 1946–1949 – involved in Greek Civil War
  1945–1948 – administration of the Mandate for Palestine, ending with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. British forces often faced conflict with Arab nationalists and Jewish Zionist militia, including those who in 1946 blew up the King David Hotel, which was British administrative and military HQ, killing 91 people.
  1947–1991 – Cold War with Soviet Union
  1948–1949 – Berlin Blockade – dispute with USSR over access to West Berlin and general Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe
  1948–1960 – Malayan Emergency – armed conflict against the politically isolated Communist forces of the Malayan National Liberation Army
  1950–1953 – Korean War – war with North Korea
  1951–1954 – Abadan Crisis – dispute with Iran over expropriated oil assets
  1956–1957 – Suez Crisis – armed conflict with Egypt over its seizure of the Suez Canal Zone, and dispute with most of international community
  1958 – First Cod War – fishing dispute with Iceland
  1962–1966 – Konfrontasi – war with Indonesia
  1972–1973 – Second Cod War – fishing dispute with Iceland
  1975–1976 – Third Cod War – fishing dispute with Iceland
  1982 – Falklands War – war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands and other British South Atlantic territory.
  1983 – Condemnation of the United States over its invasion of Grenada.
  1984 – dispute with Libya after a policewoman is shot dead in London by a gunman from within the Libyan embassy and considerable Libyan support for the IRA in Northern Ireland.
  1988 – further dispute with Libya over the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie
  1991 – Gulf War with Iraq
  1995 – under UN mandate, military involvement in Yugoslavia (specifically Bosnia)
  1997 – Hong Kong handover to Chinese rule. Britain secures guarantees for a "special status" that would continue capitalism and protect existing British property.
  1999 – involvement in NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia over Kosovo
  2000 – British action in saving the UN peacekeeping force from collapse and defeating the anti-government rebellion during the Sierra Leone Civil War
  2001 – UN-sponsored war against, and subsequent occupation of, Afghanistan
  2003 – Collaborate with US and others in war and occupation of, Iraq Over 46,000 British troops subsequently occupy Basra and Southern Iraq
  2007 – (ongoing) diplomatic dispute with Russia over the death of Alexander Litvinenko Additional matters have strained British-Russian relations; continued espionage, Russian human rights violations and support of regimes hostile to the west (Syria, Iran)
  2009 – (ongoing) Dispute with Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons programme, including sanctions and Iranian condemnation of the British government culminating in a 2011 attack on the British Embassy in Iran.
  2011 – under UN mandate, UK Armed Forces participated in enforcing the Libyan No-Fly Zone as part of Operation Ellamy
  2013 – support to French forces in the Malian civil war, including training and equipment to African peacekeeping and Malian government forces.
  2015 – support to US-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
  2016 – P5+1 and EU implement a deal with Iran intended to prevent the country gaining access to nuclear weapons.
  2018 – Sanctions on Russia following the poisoning of Sergei Skripal using a nerve agent in Salisbury, England included the expulsions of 23 diplomats, the largest ever since the Cold War, an act that was retaliated by Russia. A further war of words entailed and relations are deteriorating.
caption: British street patrol in Aden in 1967
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