Casino Royale Study Guide

Casino Royale was written after, and was heavily influenced by, the Second World War; Britain was still an imperial power, and the Western and Eastern blocs were engaged in the Cold War. The journalist William Cook observes that with the decline in power of the British Empire, "Bond pandered to Britain's inflated and increasingly insecure self-image, flattering us with the fantasy that Britannia could still punch above her weight." The cultural historians Janet Woollacott and Tony Bennett agree, and consider that "Bond embodied the imaginary possibility that England might once again be placed at the centre of world affairs during a period when its world power status was visibly and rapidly declining."

In 1953 parts of central London, including Oxford Street and High Holborn still had uncleared bomb sites and, while sweets had ceased being rationed, coal and other food items were still regulated. According to The Times journalist and historian Ben Macintyre, Bond was "the ideal antidote to Britain's postwar austerity, rationing and the looming premonition of lost power".

Casino Royale deals with the question of Anglo-American relations, reflecting the real-world central role of the US in the defence of the West. The academic Jeremy Black points to the 1951 defections of two members of MI6—Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean—to the Soviet Union as having a major impact on how Britain was poorly viewed in US intelligence circles; Fleming was aware of this tension between the two countries, but he did not focus on it too strongly, and Bond and Leiter's warm relationship did not reflectthe reality of the US-UK relationship.

Amis, in his exploration of Bond in The James Bond Dossier , pointed out that Leiter is "such a nonentity as a piece of characterization ... he, the American, takes orders from Bond, the Britisher, and that Bond is constantly doing better than he". The journalist and author Christopher Hitchens observed that "the central paradox of the classic Bond stories is that, although superficially devoted to the Anglo-American war against communism, they are full of contempt and resentment for America and Americans". David Seed, in his examination of spy fiction, disagrees, and writes that while Bond beats Le Chiffre, his "activities are constantly supported by American agencies, financing and know-how".

The treachery of Le Chiffre, with the overtones of a fifth column, struck a chord with the largely British readership as Communist influence in the trade unions had been an issue in the press and parliament at the time. Britain had also suffered from defections to the Soviet Union from two MI5 operatives who were part of the Cambridge Five spy ring that betrayed Western secrets to the Soviets. Thus Lycett observes that Casino Royale can be seen as Fleming's "attempt to reflect the disturbing moral ambiguity of a post-war world that could produce traitors like Burgess and Maclean". The journalist and writer Matthew Parker observes that with the defections of the two spies so recent to the publication, it was "perhaps the closest Fleming came to a [John] le Carré-style spy story". Chancellor sees the moral ambiguity of the Cold War reflected in the novel.

Benson considers the most obvious theme of the novel to be good versus evil. Parker agrees, and highlights a conversation between Bond and Matthis in the chapter titled "The Nature of Evil", in which Bond says: "By ... [Le Chiffre's] evil existence ... he was creating a norm of badness by which, and by which alone, an opposite norm of goodness could exist." The subject was also dealt with by the academic Beth Butterfield, in an examination of Bond from an existentialist viewpoint. In light of Bond's conversation, Butterfield identifies a crisis of confidence in Bond's character, where he has "moved beyond good and evil" to the point where he does his job not because of principles, but to pursue personal battles. Eco comes to the same conclusion, stating that Bond "abandon[s] the treacherous life of moral mediation and of psychological anger, with all the dangers they entail."

Black also identifies a mechanism Fleming uses in Casino Royale —and in subsequent Bond novels—which is to use the evil of his opponents both as a justification of his actions, and as a device to foil their own plans. Black refers to the episode of the attempted assassination of Bond by Bulgarian assassins which results in their own deaths.