Jun 18, 2026
What if the Civil War's most consequential diplomacy didn't happen in London or Washington — but in the back offices of Bahamian merchants, the shipyards of Liverpool, and the harbors of Nassau? In this episode, Kelly McFarland sits down with historian and Army veteran Beau Cleland to discuss his award-winning book "Between King Cotton and Queen Victoria: How Pirates, Smugglers, and Scoundrels Almost Saved the Confederacy" — winner of the 2026 Wiley Silver Prize for the best first book in the history of the Civil War.
Beau reveals how a decentralized network of blockade runners, private merchants, and colonial opportunists gave the Confederacy a fighting chance — and why their ultimate failure holds surprising lessons for gray zone conflict today.
📖 Get the book: https://www.amazon.com/Between-King-Cotton-Queen-Victoria/dp/082037525X
Chapters:
0:05 — Introduction & Guest Bio
1:47 — The Standard Story: King Cotton & the Trent Affair
7:22 — British Neutrality & the Legal Gray Zone
10:58 — Nassau, the Bahamas & the Blockade-Running Network
14:43 — Confederate Sympathies in the British Colonies
16:16 — Confederate Warships Built in British Shipyards
20:26 — How Close Did It Come? The Peak & Collapse of the Network
24:34 — Lessons for Today: Gray Zone Conflict & Modern Parallels
Diplomatic Immunity is produced by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. Funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.