Thesis

The Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2014
Thesis identifier
  • T13694
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Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • The general hypotheses is that the Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies (IEDSS) was not an impartial independent think tank, but that it was part of large scale US public diplomacy and propaganda strategies to influence UK domestic politics, funded by the Central Intelligence Agency and a small group of foundations. This is identified through a focus on think tanks and organisations that aimed to extend the Cold War and, at its close, to further the interests of US capital with the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe aided by organisations such as the National Endowment for Democracy. The IEDSS' 'Atlanticist' dimension, including its connections to the Heritage Foundation, reveal it as integrated with other US, UK and European covert networks as part of a 'cultural apparatus which stemmed from post-war projections of US power into Europe, and included organisation such as the Congress for Cultural Freedom or Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. In the late 1970s this extended into a network of UK think tanks modelled on and shaped by the Heritage Foundation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and state intelligence agencies and their proxies. The thesis also identifies the IEDSS as a gathering of actors involved in an ideologically driven sub-culture that influenced the Reagan and Thatcher governments that gathered together other quasi-official anti-left groups such as the Information Research Department and parapolitical organisations typified by the Institute for the Study of Conflict and other organisations run by Brian Crozier, a key actor in this story.
Resource Type
DOI
Date Created
  • 2013
Former identifier
  • 1028961

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