Calder Walton Archives - Aspects of History

Spies, by Calder Walton

Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West sounds a klaxon for the future.

Russian spies have moved into cyberspace. Their digital fingerprint is on the 2016 American elections, and all over the cultural wars. They find existing cracks in Western discourse, around Brexit or Black Lives Matter, for example, and seek to rip them still wider....

Calder Walton

Espionage, history and inspiration.

Calder Walton

Calder Walton, what first attracted you to the study of espionage? When I was an undergraduate, I read Christopher Andrew’s ground-breaking book, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB and the West (1999). At the time, I was actually studying medieval history— learning about...

A New Cold War

Five lessons to keep in mind in the coming months and years of our new stand-off with China.

Calder Walton

Are we in a new Cold War? If not, how is it best to describe the struggle between China and Western democracies? Some have suggested “hot peace”— but such wordplay doesn’t get us far. In fact, as far as intelligence and national security are concerned, the West is...

Calder Walton

Calder Walton is one of the world's leading historians of intelligence and national security. His most recent book is Spies. The Epic Intelligence War between East and West (2023). Described as “riveting” by The Economist and “a masterpiece” by Professor Christopher Andrew, it is a best-selling exposé of the history of Russian intelligence. Spies reveals that, contrary to what many in the West thought, the Cold War did not end with the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, but in fact continued after, down to the present day. Today, the West is in a new Cold War with Russia and China. SPIES builds on Calder's first (award-winning) book, Empire of Secrets. British Intelligence and the Twilight of Empire (2013).

Calder Walton

Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon Articles Click on the links below to read the full article [dpdfg_filtergrid custom_query="advanced" use_taxonomy_terms="on" multiple_taxonomies="name_of_author"...