The role of the British Intelligence Services during the End of Empire and the Early Cold War: from Attlee to Churchill

This project aims to establish the role and influence of British Intelligence in the making and implementation of
British foreign and imperial policy in the immediate post-war period, with a focus on the changes or lack thereof
between the Attlee and Churchill governments. The initial hypothesis is that structural changes in Britain and the
international order increased the influence of secret intelligence and reliance on it, by reducing the legitimacy of,
and attraction to, resorting to military force. The project will draw from newly-released Foreign Office and
Colonial Office files in order to problematize the previous historiography.