Join us for the launch of Paul McGarr's book 'Spying in South Asia,' unveiling the secret Cold War between Britain, the US, and India
About this event
Event Description:
In this special talk to coincide with the publication of Paul McGarr's, Spying in South Asia, the first comprehensive history of India’s secret Cold War, new light will be shed on the story of Indian politicians, human rights activists, and journalists as they fought against or collaborated with members of the British and US intelligence services. The interventions of these agents have had a significant and enduring impact on the political and social fabric of South Asia. The spectre of a ‘foreign hand’, or external intelligence activity, real and imagined, has occupied a prominent place in India’s political discourse, journalism, and cultural production. Spying in South Asia probes the nexus between intelligence and statecraft in South Asia and explores tensions between agencies and governments committed to defending democracy. McGarr asks why, in contrast to Western assumptions about intelligence, South Asians associate the secret world with covert action, grand conspiracy and justifications for repression? In doing so, he uncovers a fifty-year battle for hearts and minds in the Indian subcontinent.
The link for the book: www.cambridge.org/9781108843676
Speaker's bio:
Paul is an expert on US and UK security and intelligence interventions within the Global South. His work focuses on intelligence liaison, non-Western intelligence cultures, disinformation, and covert action.
His research has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; the British Academy; the Mellon Foundation; the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford; the British Library's Eccles Centre for American Studies; the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston; the American Historical Association; and the Centre for Policy Studies, New Delhi.
Paul joined King's from the University of Nottingham, where he worked on a major AHRC-funded project, Landscapes of Secrecy: The Central Intelligence Agency and the Contested Record of US Foreign Policy, 1947-2001, which explored the role played by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in shaping official narratives of American foreign policy.
He is an alumnus of the AHRC's 'Engaging with Government' programme, run in partnership with the Institute for Government, and completed a British Science Association Media Fellowship to engage the wider public in policy-related research.
Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society.