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The British Council was formed by Foreign Office officials in 1934 as a non-departmental public body to promote overseas cultural relations and counter anti-British propaganda. In the ninety years since, the British Council has established itself as a crucial component of Britain’s cultural diplomacy, mobilising large programmes of art, music, dance, drama and education to promote Britain and improve bilateral relations. The Council officially established a science programme in 1941 with the formation of the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) and has since organised a plethora of enduring science initiatives, including programmes of student and expert exchange, curriculum renewal projects, joint research collaborations and technical assistance. However, until now, the significance and importance of this broad science programme has yet to be explored in detail.
This thesis uses a series of country case studies to explore the significance of the British Council’s science initiatives during the twentieth century. In taking the examples of the Council’s work in the USSR, Egypt, India, Ghana and Nigeria, the chapters of this thesis offer various perspectives on what form the Council’s overseas science took in different regions and in different geopolitical circumstances in the twentieth century. The thesis suggests that the Council’s science programmes were mobilised to, amongst other things: create connections with the Soviet Union during the Cold War; restore bilateral relations in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis and reconfigure Britain’s relationship with countries that had once been part of the Empire.
In exploring the importance of these science programmes, this thesis positions the British Council as an agent of science diplomacy, highlighting the ability of the organisation to build informal channels of communication and collaboration, and enact national foreign policy agendas. The Council’s distance from government, its on-the-ground overseas experience and flexible approach to cultural relations meant that it was able to bridge political divides and pursue national interests though non-traditional means. In taking a science diplomacy framework, the thesis reveals new ways in which British foreign policy agendas were enacted especially in the context of the Cold War and decolonisation. In dealing with the latter, the thesis positions the Council’s science programmes as part of the British neocolonial effort; emblematic of the attempt to replace old colonial methods of control with new instruments of influence. This thesis expands our understanding of the British Council, British science diplomacy and foreign relations in the twentieth century.