The British-American Intelligence Relationship: Historical Perspectives

Free Public Lecture by Professor Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Edinburgh

Intelligence liaison proved to be a crucial dimension of espionage, and the Special Intelligence Relationship between Britain and America, with Winston Churchill a prime architect, dominated the global scene. By the 1960s, that relationship was in sharp decline, and it entered a humiliating phase at the time of the Weapons of Mass Destruction fiasco leading to the occupation of Iraq.

So where do we in Britain look now? There is currently a campaign to repatriate powers, including police, intelligence and foreign policy powers, from the European Union. Does that mean falling back on America? Is there a future in United Nations intelligence operations? Or are we mistaken in being so critical of the European Union?

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones is Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Edinburgh. His family has a Welsh-language literary tradition – his father wrote a play about Owain Glyndŵr and his great grandfather wrote a poem on the same theme. He took his BA in Aberystwyth and his PhD at Cambridge University. He held postdoctoral fellowships at the Universities of Harvard, Toronto and Berlin.

He is an authority on the history of US intelligence – amongst his twelve books are histories of the CIA and the FBI, both published by Yale University Press. Recently he has expanded his research to investigate intelligence liaison as it affects the United Kingdom and the European Union. Oxford University Press is about to publish the resultant book, In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western Intelligence.

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