Dr Luc-Andre Brunet

Professional biography

I studied at Carleton University (Ottawa), Sciences Po (Paris), and l’Université Libre de Bruxelles before completing my PhD in International History at the London School of Economics. Before joining the Open University in 2016, I was Pinto Post-doctoral Fellow at LSE and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute (Florence), and taught history at LSE and Queen Mary University of London. I also earned a German language certificate from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and have held visiting fellowships at the University of Cambridge, LSE, Sciences Po and the University of Ottawa.

At the OU, I direct the Centre for War and Peace in the Twentieth Century. Outside the OU, I’m a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow at LSE IDEAS, where I direct the Peace and Security Project.  I am also Secretary of the Society for the Study of French History and am a member of the Editorial Board of the journals Modern & Contemporary France and French History. I also co-edit the book series Global Nuclear Histories published by McGill-Queen's University Press.

Research interests

I’m interested in the international history of the 20^th century, with a focus on Western Europe (especially France) and North America.  Broadly speaking, my research focuses on two main areas. 

One is the international history of the final decade of the Cold War. I’m especially interested in the dynamics between peace and anti-nuclear activism, on the one hand, and policymaking and diplomacy, on the other. I explore these issues in my forthcoming monograph, which focuses on Canada, nuclear weapons, and NATO during the 'long 1980s', and in the edited volume NATO and the Strategic Defence Initiative: A Transatlantic History of the Star Wars Programme. I am also Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded project Global Histories of Peace and Anti-Nuclear Activism and am co-editing the forthcoming volume Beyond the Euromissile Crisis: Global Histories of Anti-Nuclear Activism in the Cold War.

My other main research interest is the history of Vichy France (1940-44). My first book, Forging Europe: Industrial Organisation in France, 1940-1952, explores continuities from the Vichy regime to post-war France and the early stages of European integration. (You can watch me discussing my book here.) My current book project on Vichy deals with the regime’s foreign policy, specifically its diplomatic relations with the members of the British Commonwealth during the Second World War. This project draws on archives in France, the UK, Germany, the United States, Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

I am currently supervising three PhD students as below, but I welcome PhD applications on any of the above topics.

-Ann Gillan, ‘”We do not wish to impose our ideas on other nations”: Promoting the aims of the Third Reich to an international audience. A study of the National Socialist journal Freude und Arbeit, 1936 to 1939’

-Sophie Dubillot, ‘Ce n'est pas une blague: Purposes and limits of humour in early post-war France (1944-46)’

-Gareth Bryant, ‘Nuclear Disarmament and the Break-up of Britain: Nationalism and Internationalism in the Peace Movement Between 1979 and 1992’

Teaching interests

I am currently co-chairing production of a new third-year module, Europe, 1914-2014: The Remaking of a Continent. I previously chaired Europe 1914-1989: War, Peace, Modernity (A327). Since joining the OU, I have also contributed teaching content to Discovering the Arts and Humanities (A111), Revolutions (A113), The British Isles and the Modern World, 1789-1914 (A225), Empire, 1492-1975 (A326) and Empire: Power, Resistance, Legacies (A328).

I earned a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education from LSE and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Impact and engagement

I provide analysis and commentary for British and international news outlets, including the BBC, CNN, TRT, and The Globe and Mail. I have also acted as historical advisor on a number of BBC Television programmes, including Call the Midwife, Icons: The Greatest Person of the Twentieth Century and Secrets and Spies: A Nuclear Game.