Stephen Long Biography

Dr. Stephen Long is Assistant Professor in International Relations at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU). He holds a PhD in US Foreign Policy and Intelligence from the University of Birmingham. Long is an expert in western covert action in the early Cold War, having researched and published extensively on this subject over the past two decades. His first book, The CIA and the Soviet Bloc: Political Warfare, the Origins of the CIA and Countering Communism in Europe, was published by IB Tauris in 2014 (reprinted with Bloomsbury in 2020). He has published in leading academic journals such as Intelligence and National Security, International History Review, Cold War History, H-Diplo and American History. Long has taught more than 20 undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Anglo-American foreign policy, intelligence studies, US-Latin American history and Cold War history at the University of Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Canterbury Christ Church and XJTLU. He has presented numerous research papers on the operation at international academic conferences, school talks and public events. He was lead-contributor to the BBC Radio 4 programme “The Albania Operation” for the BBC’s Document series and has been interviewed by the BBC World Service about his research on the Albanian operation.