Please join the Keough-Naughton Institute for a lecture by Dr. Matt Gertken based on his book, Swift's Grand Strategy: From Foreign Policy to International Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2026).
Abstract
Gulliver’s Travels turns 300 years old this year. Jonathan Swift, the scandalous Anglo-Irish author, remains the greatest satirist in the English language, but he is rarely remembered as one of the most influential foreign policy writers of the Enlightenment era. A decade before writing Gulliver, Swift excoriated the foreign policy implications of the Glorious Revolution in his sensational treatise, The Conduct of the Allies (1711). This work and others shaped the British and Anglo-Irish foreign policy debate at the very moment when Britain became the pivotal state in settling peace in Europe and a new “world order” for at least a generation. The Treaties of Utrecht (1713) inspired modern philosophical and political ambitions ranging from Emmanuel Kant’s “perpetual peace” to the European Union to the United Nations. Yet Swift gained notoriety as the apologist for a classically realist foreign policy that later helped earn Britain the reputation of “perfidious Albion.”
While Swift rationalized Britain’s “betrayal” of its allies, he also provided a powerful case for international diplomacy and peace consistent with contemporary, Grotian theories of international law. As such he made a significant contribution to debates about British grand strategy, including Ireland’s role within it. His work also has implications for today’s readers as they contemplate twenty-first century parallels of international conflict and cooperation amid extreme ideological polarization.
About the speaker
Matt Gertken is the Chief Strategist for both Geopolitical Strategy and US Political Strategy services at BCA Research, where he oversees coverage of market- relevant policy developments in the US and worldwide. Providing data-driven, non-partisan, macroeconomic, and policy research, he and his teams take a geopolitical approach to making discretionary trade recommendations for investors. He is also a member of the BCA Research Leadership Team. Before joining BCA in 2015, Matt served as a Senior Analyst at Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor) and in multiple academic and publishing roles. Matt has 18 years of experience in the field and appears frequently in global news media. He’s often remarked that political strategy is about getting policy settings right, improving scenario analysis and probabilities, and capitalizing on risks and opportunities.