‘Thickening the Pipe’: Britain, Trilateralism and Japan in the 1970s

In the early 1970s, the West was at a crossroads. The combination of a less reliable United States, global oil crisis, détente, and rising new powers all shook the foundations of the post-1945 order. For the British, a contributor and beneficiary of international order, concerns were high. However, a new international framework entered the debate in the 1970s. Coined by Henry Kissinger as ‘Trilateralism’, defining the West as three centres – North America, Western Europe and Japan – of power, it was hoped this would foster greater Western cooperation and bring stability to the disorder.Whilst receiving a good deal of scholarly attention, little has engaged with the British perspective of the concept, particularly in relation to its policies regarding Japan. Utilising untapped archival material, this article argues that for British policymakers, Trilateralism served as a means to safeguard the international order, enhance its own influence internationally and provide a means of more effectively dealing with the Japanese on trade and international economic issues. However, this dual approach, combined with conceptual flaws in the framework, limited its utility for British Japan policy, with the tension between influence and protectionism capping the level of engagement which could be reached.