Policy Papers
History & Policy papers are written by expert historians, based on peer-reviewed research. They offer historical insights into current policy issues ranging from Afghanistan and Iraq, climate change and internet surveillance to family dynamics, alcohol consumption and health reforms. For historians interested in submitting a paper, please see the editorial guidelines.
Currently, 252 papers are freely searchable by theme, author or keyword, with new papers published regularly. Where possible, we publish papers to coincide with relevant policy developments. If you are a policy maker, civil society practitioner or journalist and would like to contact one of our historians, please contact historyandpolicy@london.ac.uk.
You can download H&P policy papers directly from the Apple iBooks store to your iPhone, iPad or Mac. We also have an Amazon Kindle version to download to your PC for transfer to your Kindle via USB cable. Please consult your Kindle manual for further details.
Wilton Park’s History and British foreign policy
Holger Nehring examines the history of Wilton Park, now in its 80th year. He argues that its unlikely success should be a cause for optimism about the adaptability of British foreign policy in challenging circumstances.
Read MoreFrom advisor to infrastructure: the ethical transformation of consulting over a century
Dr Igor Baranov and Dr Michael Weatherburn consider the history of consulting. This suggests that ethical scrutiny usually follows scandal. That is too late. The paper argues that if consulting is now part of the infrastructure through which companies and states make decisions, its ethics must be built into ordinary governance, not rediscovered after each crisis.
Read MoreTesting and Contesting Women’s Bodily Autonomy: Informing Policy with a Historical Case Study from Britain in the 1930s
Responses to the death of Evelyn Fuller in 1938 point to a long history of public debate around mental health, suicide and assisted dying. Policy makers need to pay attention to that history in order to devise policies that address the social conditions that make some women especially vulnerable to taking their own lives.
Read MoreWho Holds the Agenda? Participation, Partnership, Power, and the Funding of Collaborative Oral History Research
The language of community participation now runs through every major UK research funding framework. Yet the architecture of grant funding structurally reproduces the very asymmetry in power relations that participation requirements are designed to address. Community-orientated oral history, at its best, shows that different models are possible, ones in which individual memory, shaped by historical conditions, is recovered in genuine partnership with the communities whose experiences are at stake.
Read MoreGender Inequality in Britain since 1900
Since the late 19th century women in Britain have protested against pervasive inequalities with men, much later joined by homosexual men, lesbians and transgender people protesting against inequalities they suffer. Understanding the causes of inequalities and why they persist should help us to remove them.
Read MoreWhy Britain’s Immigration System is not Fairer, Firmer and Faster: From the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 to the Emergency Visa Brake 2026
Nilakshi Das argues that the Home Office’s latest ’emergency brake’ on immigration shares the administrative logic of earlier legislation from the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act onwards, based as it is on notions of legitimacy, and organised around categories of race/ethnicity, class, nationality and descent. We need to rethink the principles behind UK immigration policy.
Read MoreTwo Speeches, Two Eras: Labour’s Quest for National Cohesion. From Wilson in 1968 to Starmer in 2026, a deep dive on two major area-based strategy announcements.
In comparing two major speeches 58 years apart, the first by Harold Wilson and the second by Keir Starmer, this policy paper by Camille Perbost identifies echoes between the attempts of these Labour prime ministers to ensure that regional inequalities and deprivation did not fuel populist extremism, and suggests some lessons from the way in which the Wilson government confronted this challenge.
Read MoreEurope in the New Cold War: Why the Old Continent Needs a Change of Perspective to Learn from Past Great Power Rivalries
How far can European leaders draw on the lessons of the Cold War to negotiate current geopolitical challenges, given the deepening rift with the United States? Christian Methfessel argues they can do so by considering how the postcolonial states of the ‘Third World’ sought to position themselves in relation to Cold War superpower rivalries.
Read MoreA New Theory Of The Origins Of Capitalism
Craig Muldrew discusses his new book which reframes capitalism’s origins as social and moral, rooted in local credit and trust, and offers new insights into capitalism’s role today.
Read More‘After the Rupture’: The Aid Dilemma of Middle Powers
Aid policy poses a dilemma for middle-ranking global powers. As multilateral guarantees weaken and US leadership becomes less predictable, they appear to face a choice between doubling down on rights-based aid or aligning more explicitly with security-driven priorities. Yet history suggests that a blended approach is possible.
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About Us
H&P is based at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London.
We are the only project in the UK providing access to an international network of more than 500 historians with a broad range of expertise. H&P offers a range of resources for historians, policy makers and journalists.
