PSOE Administration (c.1983–93)

This chapter opens with ETA on the back foot in Spain and GAL’s ‘Dirty War’ in the French Basque Country. From the mid-1980s onwards, a notable shift emerged in the UK’s analysis of ETA and the “Basque problem”, marked by a clearer distinction between the terrorist threat posed by ETA and a parallel political contention concerning the slow devolution of powers from central government to the Basque autonomous government. By the early 1990s, the prevailing view among FCO officials in London and British diplomats in Spain was that ETA was on the verge of defeat. As a result, London began to explore potential lessons from Spain’s experience of ETA for UK policy in Northern Ireland. Finally, drawing on documentation related to Anglo-Spanish counterterrorism cooperation, this chapter reveals new insights into the typology and depth of ETA-IRA relations.