Financing Foreign Policy: UK Government–Bank Relations During the Development of the 1981–2 Sovereign Debt Crisis in Poland, Romania and Hungary

Speaker: Catherine Lefevre, Glasgow
Series: Core Seminar in Economic and Social History

This talk demonstrates how UK banks helped finance the UK’s foreign policy toward Central and Eastern European (CEE) during the Cold War with the support and encouragement of the UK government. It examines the relationship between the UK government, UK banks and the Bank of England during the development of the CEE sovereign debt crisis in Poland, Romania and Hungary and shows that UK banks played a key role in the development of East–West relations during the Cold War through actively developing business ties with CEE countries which the UK government saw as an opportunity to further its foreign policy goals in the region.