KCSI Digest - Dec 2025 | King’s Centre for the Study of Intelligence

December 2025 Digest

Contents:

Events
Call for Papers
Recent Publications
Podcasts

Events:

Inside Intelligence: What’s Going on in Venezuela?
3 December 2025
Johns Hopkins, Online

Join Johns Hopkins MS in Intelligence Analysis Program Director Michael Ard as he hosts Frank Mora for a discussion on mounting geopolitical tensions between the United States and Venezuela and the country’s deepening ties with Russia and China. Mora is Senior Research Scientist at the Jack D. Gordon Institute of Public Policy and a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University. Former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States, he served as director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU. He also served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere. Mora has spent the last 20 years as a consultant to the Library of Congress, the Institute for National Security Studies, the National Democratic Institute, the U.S. State Department, the Organization of American States, and U.S. Southern Command. He received his PhD in international affairs and an MA in inter-American studies from the University of Miami and earned his BA in international affairs from The George Washington University.

More details here.

Spy Chat with Chris Costa and Brian Carbaugh
11 December 2025
International Spy Museum, Online

Join us for an online discussion of the latest intelligence, national security, and terrorism issues in the news with Spy Museum Executive Director Chris Costa and Brian Carbaugh, former Director of CIA’s elite Special Activities Center (SAC).

At SAC Carbaugh provided leadership, oversight, and management of CIA’s worldwide paramilitary and special operations. He set the strategic vision for SAC and served as the senior paramilitary and special operations advisor to three different Directors of CIA (DCIAs). Carbaugh synchronized strategic intelligence and policy initiatives with the White House, the US Armed Forces, the intelligence community, and foreign partners. Prior to leading SAC, he was Chief of Staff for two recent Directors of the CIA, where he served as the DCIA’s senior advisor and was part of the CIA’s senior leadership team. With over 32 years of experience in the US Marines and intelligence community, Carbaugh assisted the DCIA in executing, managing, and overseeing the CIA’s global intelligence enterprise. He has served in war zones and foreign posts around the world and is the recipient of the CIA’s Intelligence Star for Valor, the CIA’s Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the CIA’s Donovan Award, and the federal service Presidential Rank Award. He is a co-founder of the Third Option Foundation, a non-profit entity dedicated to supporting the operators and families of the CIA's special operations community. After retiring from CIA in 2022, Carbaugh became Co-Founder & CEO at Andesite; he is also a Senior Advisor to Red Cell’s Cyber and National Security Practice.

More details here.

AIPIO: Emerging Female Leaders in Intelligence CoP: The Art of Networking
15 December 2025
Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers

The art of networking: personal reflections and tips on how to strategically establish, nurture and grow your professional network The Emerging Female Leaders in Intelligence CoP is concerned with supporting female leaders in intelligence across all domains of practice. The EFLI CoP is an unclassified forum for practitioners, agencies, and organizations to share insights, best practice research, practical strategies female leaders can implement, as well as other matters relevant to their experiences in their career journey. The EFLI format will be an interactive workshop on a selected topic, with a guest speaker on this topic each month. The workshops will happen on the third Monday of the month.

The Emerging Female Leaders in Intelligence (EFLI) Community of Practice is dedicated to empowering and supporting female leaders across all areas of intelligence. This unclassified forum brings together practitioners, agencies, and organizations to: share insights and lived experiences, exchange best-practice research, explore practical strategies for leadership growth, and discuss challenges and opportunities unique to women in intelligence.

More details here.

Death at the Iron Curtain
11 December 2025
German Spy Museum, Berlin

Scientific studies of deaths at the inner-German border, the Berlin Wall, in the Baltic Sea, and during escape attempts via Eastern Bloc countries have so far recorded 915 people who lost their lives at the Iron Curtain between 1948 and 1989. This figure does not include hundreds of deaths, such as 161 suicides by East German border guards or 41 unexplained deaths at the borders of former Eastern Bloc countries, all of which were classified as "suspected cases." The total figure includes not only German citizens but also the deaths of Soviet deserters and other nationals. The research findings on the deaths of GDR citizens at the borders of Eastern Bloc states are based on international cooperation within the team. But it wasn't only refugees who fell victim to the Iron Curtain – West German citizens were also shot or suffered fatal electric shocks at border fences. The research team examined the records of intelligence services, foreign ministries, and border troops concerning these deadly border incidents in archives across Central and Eastern Europe. This allowed for the first comprehensive investigation of many unresolved fates in a cross-border context. *This discussion will be held in German.

More details here.

INSA Common Threads Charlottesville
16 December 2025
Boar’s Head Resort, Charlottesville, VA, USA

Join more than 250 intelligence and national security professionals for our second annual Common Threads Charlottesville, taking place on Tuesday, December 16, from 8:00-11:30 am at the Boar's Head Resort. The morning program will include a networking breakfast, keynote, and panel discussion.

Discussion topics include:

Modernizing DIA, NGA, and NGIC capabilities in AI, GEOINT, and ground force analysis
Advancing data-driven research, policy analysis, and workforce development through UVA’s National Security Data & Policy Institute
Defining the vision for the forthcoming Intelligence and National Security Innovation Acceleration Campus (INSIAC) and Rivanna Station

New This Year! The conversation continues with an optional INSA members-only/or event sponsor site tour of the Rivanna Futures Project Expansion, offering firsthand insights into the Rivanna Futures project and a direct look at how agency priorities connect to the region’s innovation ecosystem.

More details here.

Generative and Agentic AI on AWS: From Mission Concepts to Secure Deployment
18 December 2025
INSA/NRECA Conference Center, Arlington, VA, USA

Join 150+ intelligence, defense, and national security professionals on Thursday, December 18, from 8:00 am – 12:00 pm, in Arlington, VA, for an unclassified, half-day workshop designed for those driving—or seeking to understand—the integration of AI across mission operations in government and industry. Gain practical insights into how Anthropic’s Claude models, hosted in secure AWS environments, can reduce time-to-insight, improve information sharing, and strengthen decision support across the national security enterprise. In the two one-hour sessions, you will see live demos of Claude driving intelligence analysis, building novel interfaces to visualize raw data, and generating national security work products. You will also learn how to scope AI pilots, meet compliance requirements, promote responsible and ethical AI use, and engage effectively with IT and leadership teams.

More details here.

Call for Papers:

Intelligence Studies Consortium (ISC) Spring 2026 Symposium
Call for Papers: The Intelligence Profession: Future Challenges and Opportunities
Abstracts Due: 16 January 2026
Symposium: 24 March 2026
University of Virginia, Charlottsville, VA

The Intelligence Studies Consortium (ISC) was established in 2018 by the National Intelligence University (NIU) and university partners to promote communication and cooperation among academic and government organizations. The ISC provides an organized forum for the partner universities to collaborate in exploring issues and engaging in solutions that can improve national security. The participating universities have intelligence studies academic programs and unique relationships with many government agencies, non-government organizations, and the private sector; the ISC seeks to develop these relationships and provide an integrated forum to discuss critical intelligence issues in intelligence education.

The upcoming Spring 2026 Symposium, titled "The Intelligence Profession: Future Challenges & Opportunities," will feature a combination of keynote speakers, student and faculty panels, student and faculty poster sessions, networking opportunities, and a Career Fair. We will feature information about publication, internships, and employment opportunities in government (intelligence community and non-Title 50 jobs) and the private sector. This symposium will be conducted both in-person and virtually; all sessions will be recorded. We’ll provide morning refreshments and host an evening reception. We will recognize outstanding student presentations with awards.

This Call for Submissions aims to solicit fresh insights from students and faculty members at the ISC universities—at the graduate, undergraduate, or post-doctoral levels—for presentation at the Spring 2026 Symposium, “The Intelligence Profession: Future Challenges & Opportunities.” The lines of effort for this challenge, supported by the Intelligence Studies Consortium, include Homeland Security, National Security & Great Power Competition, Business/Private Sector, Emerging Technologies, and the Concept & Future of Intelligence Studies. Individuals or teams of students should submit ideas in one of the areas below or note that their submission falls in an unidentified area (Open Topic Submission).

This symposium is an opportunity for students and faculty members to present recent work at an academic conference in a panel format. Panelists will be selected for participation in the symposium based on their proposal, which will be judged by the ISC faculty representatives, using the criteria below. In addition, all persons (whether or not selected for a panel) will have the opportunity to present in a poster session. Please submit a 1-2 page proposal (an abstract) for a 10-minute presentation at the symposium and panel discussion. Government employees are obligated to obtain prepublication review on their own prior to submission.

More details here.

Call for Papers: National Intelligence History Conference, ‘Intelligence Collaboration and Co-operation’
Abstracts Due: 29 January 2026
Conference: 14-16 October 2026
Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, UK

The Bletchley Park Trust and GCHQ invite submissions for papers to be presented at the National Intelligence History Conference (NIHC) in October 2026. The conference is jointly hosted by Bletchley Park Trust (BPT) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The conference will take place at the Fellowship Auditorium and Block E Learning Centre at Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK, from the 14 – 16 October 2026. Submissions for papers to be delivered at the conference are welcomed from all those with an interest in intelligence history. This includes current and former intelligence practitioners, established academics, junior and early career scholars, and private researchers, as well as interested members of the public.

Submissions are therefore particularly welcomed which cover subjects accessible to an interested non-academic audience, as well as academic and specialist topics. In addition to the plenary talks and panels, submissions are also invited of academic posters for display within the conference suite.

The theme of the 2026 conference is ‘International Collaboration and Co-operation’. Before, and during, World War Two Bletchley Park’s close working relationships with personnel from the USA, Poland and France had substantial and significant effects in the intelligence war against the Axis powers. From international agencies to individuals, the interconnectedness of intelligence can have a global reach. This conference dives into the details of what international relationships, of all kinds, have brought to intelligence successes and failures. Submissions are invited on topics including, but not limited to:

International collaboration, unsanctioned cooperation and inter-agency communication.
Intelligence-sharing, isolation and international boundaries.
Nationality, national identity and intelligence.
Signals intelligence, HUMINT, COMINT, espionage and criminal intelligence.
Intelligence as represented in popular culture and literature, including fiction, documentary, TV and film.
Public perceptions of intelligence practice and institutions.

Papers are also welcome on contemporary issues and events, but these should ideally be framed in a historical context. The theme of this conference is broader than just SIGINT, and submissions on all types of intelligence will be accepted and reviewed equally.

More details here.

2026 IAFIE Global Annual Conference
Call for Papers: The Convergence of Artificial Intelligence, Cyber and Intelligence on National Security Interests
Abstracts Due: 31 January 2026
Conference: 1-3 June 2026
University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, Georgia, USA

The International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE) in partnership with the University of North Georgia invites submissions for its Annual Conference, "The Convergence of Artificial Intelligence, Cyber, and Intelligence on National Security Interests", taking place in Dahlonega, Georgia in the United States of America (USA), from June 1st to 3rd, 2026. We welcome proposals from academics and practitioners in fields such as intelligence, security, strategic studies, cybersecurity, law enforcement, decision sciences, international relations, law, history, journalism, and communication, among others. Submissions should align with the conference theme and tracks, or related topics and may take the form of:

Fully Formed Panels (3-5 papers)
Roundtable Discussions (topic-focused discussions)
Standard Papers (individual papers assigned to panels)
Poster Presentations (interactive session)

More details here.

Call for Papers: Counter Threat Finance (CTF) in Strategic Competition and Hybrid Warfare
Submission Deadline: 31 January 2026

We are in an era of strategic competition characterized by persistent engagement below the threshold of conventional warfare. State and non-state actors increasingly exploit economic vulnerabilities and financial networks to achieve strategic objectives while maintaining plausible deniability. PRISM seeks to advance scholarly understanding of Counter Threat Finance (CTF) and Threat Finance and Economic Levers of Power (TFEL) as critical components of contemporary irregular warfare and strategic competition.

We welcome original research addressing, but not limited to, the following areas:

Economic Warfare and Financial Warfare in Strategic Competition.
Threat Finance Intelligence.
Counter Threat Finance Operations.
Innovation, Emerging Technology and Future Challenges in Counter Threat Finance.

Suggested areas for articles range from conceptual or doctrinal through to historical case studies and future horizon scanning.

Examples focus areas are:

Defining Economic Warfare and Financial Warfare.
Counter Threat Finance versus Threat Finance and Economic Levers of Power.
Case studies of Economic Warfare and Financial Warfare.
Allies’ and partners’ approaches to Counter Threat Finance.
Adversaries’ approach to Counter Threat Finance.
Threat Finance and Operations in the Information Environment (OIE).
Supply chain weaponization and critical infrastructure vulnerabilities.
Integration of economic and financial tools in hybrid warfare campaigns.
State-sponsored criminal networks and their financing mechanisms.
Proxies, cutouts, and financial intermediaries in gray zone operations.
Financial intelligence collection and analysis methodologies.
Financial Intelligence as an intelligence discipline.
Emerging technologies and Counter Threat Finance.

More details here.

Intelligence and National Security Journal
Call for Papers: Special Issue on Psychology and Intelligence
Expressions of Interest: 1 February 2026 (Title/Abstract)
Initial Submission Deadline: 1 March 2027
Word Count: 7,000-10,000

Intelligence and National Security invites submissions for a special issue on Political Psychology and Intelligence. This issue seeks to highlight the intersection between intelligence gathering and analysis including career advancement, and the political and psychological factors that may influence it.

The special issue offers an opportunity to explore the ways in which intelligence gathering and analysis may be affected by political and psychological factors broadly constructed. This might include work on the way political or other biases might influence self-selection into intelligence work, procedures around recruitment, hiring and promotion, intelligence collection, analysis or interpretation of information. In addition, work that explores the way ubiquitous psychological biases can affect all aspects of the intelligence space, including the collection and processing of information is strongly encouraged.

The goal of the special issue is to highlight often unrecognized or ignored aspect of intelligence collection and analysis and to raise awareness of the role of psychological processes in intelligence. The journal of Intelligence and National Security is seeking research articles that investigate these themes in systematic and in-depth fashion. Articles enhancing theorical construction as well as empirical papers are welcome.

We invite research paper submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

The politicization of intelligence
Leadership analysis
The way specific psychological bias can influence intelligence collection or analysis
How psychology might be useful in counterintelligence programs
How psychological factors enter into decisions to join the intelligence community
How political bias can influence the interpretation of data
Personality effects on intelligence work
How and wheather psychological analysis of adversaries can provide useful information

Questions and inquiries can be sent via email to Rose_McDermottt@Brown.edu

2026 Joint Special Operations University Call for Papers
Submissions Due: 23 February 2026

As the university transforms in function and form in support of USSOCOM priorities, it is reintroducing the focus on short, impactful papers that promote discourse and spark idea generation across the SOF enterprise. These concise pieces help capture emerging concepts, highlight operational challenges, and identify opportunities for applied research—creating a vital link between education and operations. This effort aligns with JSOU’s transformation into a more command-aligned university that leverages “360-degree” thought leadership to drive innovation and influence SOF.

Topics were selected from the 2026 Special Operations Research Topics (SORT) booklet, which was developed with input from across the SOF enterprise. This year, JSOU revisited the SORT focus areas and selected a broad theme of technology in SOF, which offers a forward-looking lens that can inform future exercises, SOF AT&L requirements, SOF week discussions, fiction submissions, and more. Other than the fiction category, all submissions must align with one of the following SOF technology-related topics:

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Targeting
Next-Generation Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance/Tactically Relevant for Advanced Situational Awareness
Space-Cyber-SOF-STRATCOM Nexus: How to Build Capabilities Greater than the Sum of Its Individual Parts
Ethical, Legal, and Operational Challenges of AI-Driven Warfare and Autonomous Systems
NEXUS/Triad Strategic-Level Synthesis
Harnessing Data for Irregular Warfare
Digital Force Protections: Threats and Risks to SOF
Rapid All-Domain Fusion for SOF
SOF Use of Non-Government Hackers in Support of Strategic Objectives
Optimizing Drone Use and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems Strategies

For more detail about the topics, including specific questions/prompts, please review the AY2026 Call for Special Operations Papers Memorandum, Appendix A. Papers must not exceed 5,000 words, excluding notes and references. All submissions must be unclassified. Submissions should be properly cited using Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition guidance with endnotes (no footnotes please) and follow JSOU Press Manuscript text preparation guidance. The online submission form and Microsoft Word document (emailed to callforpapers@jsou.edu) must be received by February 23, 2026. Late submissions are not accepted.

More details here.