In April 1946, the first post-war course of the Imperial Defence College (IDC) got underway with General Bill Slim as the new commandant. The college had been established during the interwar years to provide an opportunity for senior military officers and civil servants from Britain and the Commonwealth to gain a better understanding of higher strategy and how it was conducted. Andrew Stewart examines Slim’s role in the reopening of the IDC as Britain re-thought its role in international politics. He shows that the students at the college would spend much of their time studying what is now referred to as ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ power, and over the eight months of the course they gained a much better understanding of the influence Britain wielded in the world.