Since the end of the Second World War, there has been a subtle but undeniable tension between France and its two key allies: Great Britain and the United States. Resentful of the burgeoning status and influence of the English-speaking world, and fearing the loss of colonial resources and global standing, France has pursued a secret rivalry with her Anglo-Saxon competitors.
This simmering tension has manifested in flashes and flurries of conflict spanning continents and decades. In a bid for power and glory, the French engaged in counter-espionage against British spies in Madagascar, assisted the Argentines during the Falklands War, fought a proxy war with Britain in Nigeria in the 1960s and kindled the tensions that eventually led to the Rwandan genocide.
With material from original archive sources and interviews with diplomats and foreign policy experts, Power and Glory reveals these 'secret wars' that the French have fought with their rivals, and considers France's true motives in Libya and the ongoing civil war in Syria. This extraordinary book tells the story of the curious post-war enmity churning beneath a superficial veneer of unity, and explores how it has shaped relations between France, Britain and the United States in the present day.
