Peter Jackson is Professor of International History at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland (He will be taking up his post as Professor of Global Security at the University of Glasgow in September 2013.) He has research interests in the history of international relations, the history of modern France, and the role of intelligence in national and international security.
He has just finished a manuscript entitled Beyond the Balance of Power: French foreign and security policy in the era of the First World War. This book examines on the role of contending conceptions of national security in the evolution of French foreign policy from 1914 through 1928. Peer-reviewed articles related to the research for this book have appeared (or will shortly appear) in the Journal of Strategic Studies, the Review of International Studies, French History, French Historical Studies and the English Historical Review.
Previously, he has been a post-doctoral fellow at Yale University and taught at the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University. He is currently a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Chercheur Associé at the Centre d’Histoire de l’Europe du Vingtième Siècle, Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris. He is also co-editor of Intelligence and National Security.
He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.
Abstract
The talk will be based on the forthcoming monograph "Beyond the Balance of Power: France and the politics of national security in the era of the First World War." The aim will be to reconsider the impact of the First World War on contending conceptions of security in France. The argument will be that there were two general currents of thought on the question of security before 1914. The dominant current was traditional in character and based on long-standing assumptions about the balance of power and the need for exclusive alliances and strategic preponderance. The alternative conception was internationalist in inspiration and reflected the central role of law in French political culture. It aimed at achieving security through the creation of an international regime of public law backed up by the automatic use of collective force. The tremendous sacrifices demanded of the French nation during the Great War created political space for the internationalist alternative. After 1917 French national security policy was influenced in important respects by the internationalist approach to peace and security. This influence has been missed almost entirely by several generations of historians who have tended overwhelmingly to characterize French policy as inspired by the 'realist' assumptions of power politics.
