Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence

This book analyzes the weaknesses in Britain's Rhodesian policy in the 1960s and the strains that Rhodesia's UDI imposed on Britain's relations with the Commonwealth, the United States and the United Nations.

". . . a truly comprehensive international history of UDI and the subsequent history of Zimbabwe still must be written. Whoever takes up this challenge will certainly need to grapple carefully with the arguments made in Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence." - H-Diplo

"In this detailed and meticulously researched history Carl Peter Watts provides what is almost certainly the first study that sets UDI in context, not just in Commonwealth terms, but much more widely - notably, for example, in the involvement of the United States. The great strength of Carl Peter Watts's impressive study is that it explores fully a wide variety of issues in a way that helps to put all this for the first time in a full historical perspective." - The Round Table

"Overall, this book represents a well-written and thorough re-examination of the diplomatic dimensions of Rhodesian UDI and is relevant as reviews a central event in the making of present-day Zimbabwe with its more recent political and economic troubles and international controversies." - Tim Stapleton, Trent University Ontario, Canadian Journal of African Studies

" . . . this is an extremely well-researched account of events which nearly destroyed the Commonwealth and Britain's standing in Africa, and in the developing world generally." - Christopher Hill, Cape Times

'Structured by the way of six empirically rich chapters [ ] this is a remarkably detailed study of British, American,'Old Commonwealth' (Australia, Canada and New Zealand) and Rhodesian political manoeuvrings in the period leading up to the illegal declaration, which complements the existing orthodox political histories of the period. There is much to be admired in this monograph, not least the broad range of national archives that Watts has managed to consult and the lucid style in which it is written.' - The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

Carl Peter Watts completed his doctoral thesis on Rhodesia's UDI at the University of Birmingham, UK, where he taught modern history and war studies. He has also taught at several universities in the American Midwest. Dr. Watts is currently a Research Fellow in the Centre for Imperial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Southampton, UK and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has published his research on various aspects of the Rhodesian crisis in journals such as Diplomatic History, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, and Twentieth Century British History.