Collection FREEDMAN, LD - FREEDMAN, Professor Sir Lawrence David (b 1948)

Key Information

Reference code

FREEDMAN, LD

Title

FREEDMAN, Professor Sir Lawrence David (b 1948)

Date(s)

  • 1959-1992 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent

315 boxes or 3.15 cubic metres

Scope and content

Papers of Professor Lawrence Freedman, 1959-1992, including files of press cuttings, printed material and other papers relating to defence issues, 1959-1991, collected by Professor Lawrence Freedman, notably on the Gulf War, 1990-1991, the Falklands War, 1982, and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), 1959-1987, START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks), 'STAR WARS' (the US Strategic Defense Initiative), and defence issues in the Soviet Union, UK, Germany, France, Israel and China; Freedman's correspondence and research papers on topics including UK Nuclear History, START, 1990-1992, House of Commons Defence Committee, MOD Defence Estimates, SDI, Eastern Europe, Soviet arms control, strategy and foreign relations, 1990-1992; and USA Department of Defense Current News: special editions and selected statements, 1977-1988, topics of special editions are principally arms control, espionage and strategic defence initiative.

A small number of files were recalled from the 1st accession by Professor Freedman in 1998. These are indicated on the box list.

System of arrangement

Arranged by themes as outlined in 'Scope and content'.

General Information

Name of creator

(1948-)

Biographical history

Born, 1948; educated at Whitley Bay Grammar School, Northumberland, Manchester University, York University, and Nuffield College, Oxford; Teaching Assistant, York University, 1971-1972; Research Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford University, 1974-1975; Research Associate, International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1975-1976; Research Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1976-1978; Head of Policy Studies, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1978-1982; Professor of War Studies, King's College London, since 1982; Member of Council, International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1984-1992; Honorary Director, Centre for Defence Studies, from 1990; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, 1991; Fellow of King's College London, 1992; Chairman, Committee on International Peace and Security, US Social Science Research Council, from 1993; Fellow of the British Academy, 1995; awarded CBE, 1996, KCMG, 2003; Head of the School of Social Science and Public Policy, King's College London, from 2001.

Publications: US Intelligence and the Soviet strategic threat (Macmillan, London, 1977); Arms production in the United Kingdom: problems and prospects (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1978); The West and the modernisation of China (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1979); Britain and nuclear weapons (Macmillan for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1980); The evolution of nuclear strategy (Macmillan in association with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, 1981); Nuclear war and nuclear peace (1983); editor of The troubled alliance. Atlantic relations in the 1980s (Heinemann, London, 1983); Atlas of global strategy (Macmillan, London, 1985); The price of peace: living with the nuclear dilemma (Firethorn, London, 1986); Terrorism and international order (Routledge and Kegan Paul for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1986); Why is arms control so boring? (Council for Arms Control, London, 1987); Britain and the Falklands War (Blackwell, Oxford, 1988); edited with Philip Bobbitt and Gregory Treverton, US nuclear strategy: a reader (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1989); editor of Military power in Europe: essays in memory of Jonathan Alford (Macmillan in association with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Basingstoke, 1990); with Virginia Gamba-Stonehouse, Signals of war: the Falklands conflict of 1982 (Faber and Faber, London, 1990); editor of Europe transformed: documents on the end of the Cold War (Tri-Service, London, 1990); editor with John Saunders, Population change and European security (Brassey's, London, 1991); editor with Michael Clarke, Britain in the world (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991); editor of War, strategy and international politics. Essays in honour of Sir Michael Howard (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992); with Efraim Karsh, The Gulf conflict, 1990-1991: diplomacy and war in the new world order (Faber and Faber, London, 1993); editor of War (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994); Military intervention in European conflicts (Blackwell, Oxford, 1994); The revolution in strategic affairs (Oxford University Press for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Oxford, 1998); editor of Strategic coercion: concepts and cases (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998); The politics of British defence, 1979-98 (Macmillan Press, Basingstoke, 1999); Kennedy's wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam (Oxford University Press, New York, 2000).

Custodial history

Placed in the Centre by Professor Freedman in four accessions, 1993 and 2001.

Conditions governing access

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.

Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Finding aids

This collection level description and attached draft finding aid for 1st accession.

Uploaded finding aid

Existence and location of originals

Off-campus collection

Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›

Related materials

King's College London, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, holds papers of AVM Stewart William Blacker Menaul, including articles from The Times by Freedman on 'Britain's deterrent dilemma', 9 May, 1983 (Ref: Menaul 1/1/204), 'The built-in price of staying nuclear', 9 Feb 1982 (Ref: Menaul 1/1/242), and 'Europe feels the pinch of SALT', 2 Aug 1978 (Ref: Menaul 2/254), an article from Survival by Freedman, 'Israel's nuclear policy' [1975] (Ref: Menaul 1/1/38), letter to editor of The Times by Dr A E Cockcroft, relating to view of Strategic Defense Initiative expressed by Freedman [21 Jun 1984] (Ref: Menaul 3/369), letter to editor of The Times by Menaul relating to letter by Freedman and to the Strategic Defense Initiative [21 Jun 1984] (Ref: Menaul 3/370), letter to editor of The Times by Freedman entitled, 'A Star Wars challenge to peace' [15 Jun 1984] (Ref: Menaul 3/371), Royal Institute on International Affairs lecture by Freedman at Chatham House/Ministry of Defence seminar, 'The declining myth of flexible response', Jul 1981 (Ref: Menaul 5/4/69), newspaper article by Freedman, 'Labour's secret arms race', on the Labour Party's role in the choice of Trident [1979] (Ref: Menaul 7/2/241), and paper by Freedman produced by Royal Institute of International Affairs, 'Arms production in the United Kingdom: problems and prospects', 1978 (Ref: Menaul 7/2/243).

Related descriptions

Alternative identifier(s)

People and Organisations

Genre access points

Rules and/or conventions used

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.

Script(s)

Archivist's note

Compiled by Iain Mutch; revised by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

Accession area