18 Facts About Michael MccGwire

Michael Kane MccGwire was a British international relations specialist known for his work on Cold War geopolitics and Soviet naval strategy.

Michael MccGwire was a well-known critic of nuclear deterrence theory.

Michael MccGwire attended the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, from age 13 and graduated top of his term in 1942, winning the King's Dirk which was presented to him by George VI.

In 1952 Michael MccGwire joined GCHQ to develop naval intelligence on the Soviet Navy, then returned to sea.

Michael MccGwire started building up his knowledge of Soviet geopolitics.

The UK was twenty years into the Cold War, yet when he got this job Michael MccGwire was the first head of the section to know the language, to have worked in Russia, to have had experience of another agency and to be well acquainted with the Americans.

Michael MccGwire completely reshaped the intelligence effort to ask new questions.

Michael MccGwire's colleagues were surprised when MccGwire quit his promising naval career and retired in 1967 aged 42, having just been told that a promotion to Captain was imminent.

Michael MccGwire's aim was to work in the Third World as a Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme, and the first requirement was to have a degree, so he became an undergraduate student in International Politics and Economics at University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Michael MccGwire stayed there until 1979, publishing three edited books and playing the leading role in founding the modern study of Soviet naval power.

Furthermore, whereas so many commentators assumed that perestroika was a direct result of the confrontational policies of the Reagan administration during the 1980s, Michael MccGwire argued that Reagan almost certainly delayed the process.

Michael MccGwire semi-retired in 1990, joining the University of Cambridge as a visiting professor for three years in their Global Security Programme.

Michael MccGwire was best known for the 'Michael MccGwire thesis': that the Soviet military buildup during the Cold War was largely due to fear of attack, and was thus a defensive measure.

Michael MccGwire strongly challenged the prevailing Cold War view that Moscow was planning pre-emptive military aggression against the West.

Michael MccGwire developed 'objectives analysis' to track changes in military hardware and strategy, based on painstaking analysis of personnel, equipment and geopolitical intentions.

Michael MccGwire was a frequent public commentator, including a televised debate against the leading neoconservative Richard Perle.

Michael MccGwire identified a tipping point in Soviet strategy: from studying Soviet military writings and identifying changes in Soviet deployment of military forces, he identified 1966 as the start of a shift away from the 1950s Soviet assumption that war would inevitably lead to an all-out nuclear exchange.

In sum, Michael MccGwire believed the end of the Cold War was due to Soviet initiatives rather than the manoeuvring of the Western powers.