As new nations were formed from the declining British Empire, a murky world of diplomats, oil executives and spies were determined to maintain London's grip on Iran and its strategic oil reserves. Directed from Whitehall by successive governments, this book explores the complexities and ambiguities of British policy in Iran and demonstrates its centrality to post-war imperial reorientation. Situating Iran within Britain's 'informal empire,' Jack Taylor demonstrates that Clement Attlee's Labour Government saw Iranian oil as critical to the construction of a domestic New Jerusalem, and used coercion, propaganda, and espionage to preserve their control over it. In doing so, they were forced to confront not only the emerging Cold War, but local resistance expressed through diverse forms including trade unionism, Soviet-inspired Marxism, and popular nationalism. Oil, Nationalism and British Policy in Iran offers new insight into the scale of British interference in Iran and its ultimate failure. It reveals that as London's policy floundered the United States independently took steps to safeguard their own regional economic and security interests. Although British actors were critical in the operation to depose Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh following his government's nationalisation of the oil industry, they were ultimately unable to sustain their informal empire in Iran.

This book explores British policy in Iran against a backdrop of decolonisation to demonstrate the central place this nation had in Britain's postwar imperial reorientation. Focusing on the period leading up to Operation Ajax and using a wealth of primary sources, it shows that although Iran was not part of Britain's 'rose coloured map', it was a key part of the informal empire; an imperial network sustained through economic and corporate influence. Both a critical bulwark against Soviet expansion and a vital source of oil, successive British governments sought to enhance British power in Iran during and after the Second World War. Highlighting the different forms and textures of British imperialism in the mid-20th century, Jack Taylor shows how as empire was coming to an end in regions such as India and Palestine, imperial interests were reoriented towards other, more profitable areas in the Middle East. However, this book shows that as the British sought to entrench themselves more firmly in Iran, resentment was on the rise in the form of populist nationalism. Demonstrating how British policy makers failed to understand these movements, Oil, Nationalism and British Policy in Iran shows how the US government intervened to restore Iranian autocracy. In doing so, the US supplanted Britain as the foremost power in the Persian Gulf and brought half a century of informal empire to a close.

Oil, Nationalism and British Policy in Iran convincingly makes the case that Britain's postwar reconstruction was tied to oil imperialism in the Middle East. Through extensive archival research, Taylor demonstrates how British government policy consistently aimed to maintain imperial assets in Iran and laid foundations for the 1953 coup.