A forward policy is a set of foreign policy doctrines applicable to territorial ambitions and disputes in which emphasis is placed on securing control of targeted territories by invasion and annexation or by the political creation of compliant buffer states.
In Britain, Gladstone and the Liberals are identified with the backward school, Disraeli and the Conservatives with the forward.
[8] Amongst India hands Lord Wellesley, an early Governor-General of India, supported the policy,[9] as did his acolyte John Malcolm and less exalted staff such as William Moorcroft[10] Sir Henry Rawlinson was a strong advocate of the forward policy, notably in his England and Russia in the East (1875) .
[9] Contention between the two played out at local as well as national levels:[12] Sandeman's forward policy in Balochistan was at a complete variance with his colleague's approaches in neighbouring frontier areas.
[13] The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 settled British-Russian relations by defining borders and spheres of influence sufficiently to enable Britain to bring its forward policy to an end.