When it came to power in 1997, the new Labour government gave every impression that it would continue the transatlantic defence policy focus pursued so assiduously by all its post–war predecessors. The Strategic Defence Review took this as its foreign policy assumption and had little to say about Europe.
The promotion of the Western European Union (WEU) as a safety valve for any schemes for wider European military ambitions remained a policy aim. Yet no sooner was the Review published than the inner circles of government formulated a new approach to European defence.