Neutral Countries as Clandestine Battlegrounds, 19391968: Between Two Fires

(Hardback)

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During the Second World War and the subsequent Cold War, foreign agents conducted intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and subversive operations inside neutral countries aimed at damaging their opponents' interests. The essays contained in this collection analyze the risks of espionage operations on neutral soil as well as the dangers their covert activities posed for the governments of neutral states. In striving to avoid involvement in the firing line of the Second World War or the front line of the Cold War, the contributors argue that neutral states developed security policies that focused on protecting their own sovereignty without provoking overt hostility from any of the great powers. This collection describes how the warring parties engaged in competition on neutral territory and analyzes how neutral governments rose to the existential challenge posed by international spies, their own venal officials, and even foreign assassins.

Reviews

Neutral Countries as Clandestine Battlegrounds, 19391968: Between Two Fires is intelligence history at its best. Combining scholarly rigor with vivid story-telling, this collection provides new insights into the intelligence-gathering, sabotage and other activities of the belligerents during and after the Second World War. It also casts light on the measures taken by neutral states to preserve their freedom of actionoften with surprising success. -- Patrick Salmon, chief historian at the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Author Bio

Andr Gerolymatos (19512019) was professor and director of the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University.

Denis Smyth is professor emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Toronto.

James Horncastle is assistant professor and Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations at Simon Fraser University.