Dr James Ellison
Reader in International History
Location: Arts Two 4.07email: j.r.v.ellison@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7882 8357
Dr James Ellison received his PhD in International History from Canterbury Christ Church University and taught at the University of Kent and in London before joining the Department of History at Queen Mary, University of London, in 1997.
Research interests:
Dr Ellison’s research interests focus on the history of Britain’s relationships with Europe and the United States after 1945 and, more widely, on the history of the Cold War and European integration. His research has examined one of the enduring questions of post-war British history: why has Britain found it so difficult to come to terms with European unity? In his recent research projects, Dr Ellison’s interests have evolved to incorporate the study of US foreign policy, Anglo-American relations and Cold War Europe.
Dr Ellison has recently presented his research at conferences and seminars in Cambridge, London, Nottingham, Oxford and Rouen. In 2007 he delivered papers at the annual conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Virginia, USA, and at the conference on the Atlantic Community and the European idea held at the Roosevelt Study Centre, Middelburg, the Netherlands. He is a co-convenor of the International History Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, London, and a member of the editorial board of the journal Contemporary British History.
Postgraduate supervision:
Theses completed:
- British Foreign Policy and the War in Vietnam, 1964-1970
- Harold Wilson and Britain’s Second Application for EEC Membership, 1964-1968
- North Atlantic Fisheries Disputes and the Cold War, 1945-1963
Theses under supervision:
- Britain’s Entry to the European Economic Community, 1969-1973
- Britain, France and the Algerian War, 1958-1962
- Detecting Strategic Decline: British Economic Intelligence Assessments of the Soviet Union 1945-1991 (jointly supervised with Professor Peter Hennessy)
- NATO and the Southern Flank in the 1950s
Future PhD supervision:
Dr James Ellison welcomes applications from graduate students with interests in international history, especially those who wish to research post-war British foreign policy, Anglo-American and Anglo-European relations, and connections between the Cold War and European integration. As a member of an unparalleled group of historians working on modern and contemporary America, Britain and Europe, James Ellison is also interested in supervising graduates who would like to research comparative history.
Publications:
Books
The United States, Britain and the Transatlantic Crisis: Rising to the Gaullist Challenge, 1963-68 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
Threatening Europe: Britain and the Creation of the European Community, 1955-1958 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000)
Journal articles and chapters in edited books
‘Stabilising the West and looking to the East: Anglo-American relations, Europe and détente, 1965 to 1967’ in N Piers Ludlow (ed), European Integration and the Cold War: Ostpolitik-Westpolitik, 1965-1973 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), pp 105-127.
‘De Gaulle and Anglo-French Mésentente, 1958-1967’ in Antoine Capet (ed), Britain, France and the Entente Cordiale Since 1904 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp 143-161.
‘Separated by the Atlantic: The British and de Gaulle, 1958-1967’, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 17/4 (December 2006), pp 853-870.
‘Defeating the General: Anglo-American Relations, Europe and the NATO Crisis of 1966’, Cold War History, 6/1 (February 2006), pp 85-113
‘Britain and Europe’ in Paul Addison and Harriet Jones (eds), A Companion to Contemporary Britain 1939-2000 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), pp 517-538
‘Managing the Americans: Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and the Pursuit of “Power by Proxy” in the 1950s’ (joint-authored with Professor Kevin Ruane), Contemporary British History, 18/3 (Autumn 2004), pp 147-167.
‘Britain and the Treaties of Rome, 1955-1959’ in Roger Broad and Virginia Preston (eds), Moored to the Continent: Britain and Europe since 1945 (London: Institute of Historical Research, 2001), pp 33-54.
‘Accepting the Inevitable: Britain and European Integration’ in Wolfram Kaiser and Gillian Staerck (eds), British Foreign Policy, 1955-64: Contracting Options (London: Macmillan, 2000), pp 171-190.
Undergraduate teaching:
Europe since 1890 (Level 1)
The Road from 1945: Britain since the Second World War (Level 1)
Anglo-American Relations, 1939-73 (Level 2)
Britain and Europe, 1945-1963 (Level 2)
Concepts of Europe (Level 2)
The Integration of Europe (Level 2)