The Centre for Statecraft & National Security is excited to host Dr Matthew Hefler for a talk on his book, Churchill and de Gaulle: Secret Intelligence and the Failure of Franco-British Relations.

During the Second World War, Britain and France engaged in a hidden struggle shaped by great power rivalry and covert political action. Intelligence archives reveal that Winston Churchill had decided against an alliance with France. To secure Britain’s postwar position, he opted to consolidate control of the Middle East by creating a Greater Syria, establishing a Jewish State, and permitting a campaign of subversion to oust the French from the region. The strategy brought him up against Charles de Gaulle – whose intelligence services had penetrated the operation – and his own Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, who led a secret effort to salvage Franco-British relations. Churchill and de Gaulle traces a sweeping Churchillian effort to preserve Britain’s great power status – and the end of the Entente Cordiale.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Matthew Hefler is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Statecraft and Strategic Communication, Stockholm School of Economics, and Project Lead of the AJI Intelligence and Research Programme, Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy. He is a specialist in international history and intelligence history. Hefler received his PhD as a Commonwealth Scholar and Rotary International Global Grant Scholar at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. His doctoral work on intelligence and allied relations during the Second World War was shortlisted for the Michael Dockrill Prize in International History by the British International History Group (BIHG).

To register to attend, please click here.