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

July 2025 Digest

Contents:

Events
Conferences
Call for Papers
Recent Publications
Podcasts

Events:

Spies, Secrets and Archives
2 July 2025
The National Archives, Kew, UK

As Security Correspondent for BBC News, over the past 20 years, Gordon Corera has reported on issues relating to national security and intelligence. He has covered some of the world's biggest spy stories ranging from the Edward Snowden leaks through to the poisonings of Sergei Skripal and Alexander Litvinenko. Join him as he discusses insights from his career covering the changing world of British intelligence through to his latest work investigating the secrets of the KGB archives and the remarkable story of KGB archivist, Vasili Mitrokhin. Gordon Corera is co-host of The Rest is Classified podcast which delves into the world of espionage. He continues to work as an analyst covering the latest developments for BBC News. He is also the author of a series of non-fiction books including Russians Among Us, MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service, Intercept: The Secret History of Computers and Spies and The Secret Pigeon Service.

More details here.

Leadership Dinner with Gen. Michael Guetlein, USSF
2 July 2025
INSA, McLean, VA

Join more than 300 professionals from the intelligence, defense, and national security communities on Wednesday for a Leadership Dinner with guest of honor Gen. Michael Guetlein, USSF, Vice Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force. Gen. Guetlein will deliver keynote remarks and, following dinner, join VADM Robert Sharp, USN (Ret.), former Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, for a candid conversation on the future of space security.

Discussion topics include:

The FY25 USSF Data and AI Strategic Action Plan and its impact on decision-making
Moving from space dominance to space control in contested environments
Operation Golden Dome: what's ahead for the missile defense initiative
Importance of partnerships between USSF and the private and academic sectors

More details here.

Spy Chat with Chris Costa and Douglas London
10 July 2025
International Spy Museum, Washington D.C. and Online

Join us for an online discussion with Spy Museum Executive Director Chris Costa and Douglas London, former CIA Senior Operations Officer. London retired from the CIA in 2019 after 34 years with the CIA’s Clandestine Service. As a Senior Operations Officer, Chief of Station, and CIA’s Counterterrorism Chief for South and Southwest Asia, he served primarily in the Middle East, South Asia, the former Soviet Republics and Africa, with senior management positions for the Near East, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, Iran and Cyber operations. In addition to his three assignments as Chief of Station, he was a CIA Base Chief in a conflict zone. He was a CIA subject matter expert in counterterrorism, counterintelligence, Iran, cyber and hostile environment operations in denied areas. He also served as an intelligence tradecraft instructor. London is the author of the book The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence concerning the CIA’s post 9/11 transformation. He has been a contributor to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs, among many other media outlets. He is an adjunct associate professor, Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University; adjunct lecturer for John Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies; and a non-resident fellow with the Global and National Security Institute.

More details here.

Burgess and Maclean Disappear
11 July 2025
The National Archives, Kew, UK

In June 1951, a shocking news story gripped the nation when it was announced that two Foreign Office diplomats, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, had disappeared. Speculation rose about their whereabouts until it emerged that they had fled to the Soviet Union. Join MI5: Official Secrets curator, Mark Dunton, to discover the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of these notorious members of the Cambridge Five spy ring, drawing on the rich archives of the Security Service, housed at The National Archives. Mark Dunton is Principal Records Specialist at The National Archives specializing in contemporary records and has written and broadcast extensively on the modern period. Mark has an in-depth knowledge and experience of researching public records, specializing in 20th Century Britain (political, social and economic history): Prime Minister’s Office records, Cabinet Papers, and the records of the Security Service. He is also the curator of The National Archives' current exhibition MI5: Official Secrets.

More details here.

Women in the Stasi
14 July 2025
Stasi Headquarters, Berlin

Thirty-five years ago, in the fall of 1989, courageous citizens took to the streets and put an end to the SED regime. Throughout the GDR , offices of the Ministry for State Security were occupied to stop the destruction of documents. On January 15, 1990, demonstrators stormed the Stasi headquarters and secured the secret police's records there as well. In doing so, they laid the foundation for making the files accessible for investigation. At the historic site in Berlin-Lichtenberg, you can explore the history of the place and learn more about the former GDR secret police. During the "Women in the Stasi " tour, you'll explore the permanent exhibition on the Stasi Records Archive and take a look inside an archive room containing the original documents. Using various biographies and file examples, we'll demonstrate how the Stasi used women to collect, manage, and utilize its information for its own purposes.

More details here.

ETH CSS Web Talk: Foreign Disinformation: Risks and Responses
24 July 2025
ETH Zürich Center for Security Studies, Online

Foreign disinformation – the intentional spreading of false or misleading information by actors linked to foreign states – is a matter of widespread concern in democracies worldwide, Switzerland included. Fear that disinformation could polarize citizens and undermine democratic processes has been on the rise since the 2016 US presidential election. Today, concerns are being fueled further by ongoing influence operations and the worry that artificial intelligence could supercharge the production and dissemination of disinformation.

More details here.

2025 William Oliver Baker Award Dinner for The Hon. William J. Burns
26 July 2025
INSA, Washington, D.C.

Join nearly 700 senior intelligence and national security leaders for an exceptional INSA evening as we honor The Hon. William J. Burns, at the 2025 William Oliver Baker Award Dinner. This festive event will take place on Saturday, July 26, from 6:00-10:00 pm, at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC. Come celebrate the past year's accomplishments with friends old and new and get a year's worth of networking in just one evening! Don't miss this chance to applaud Mr. Burns' outstanding contributions and revel in the lively atmosphere of this spirited event.

More details here.

Conferences:

Aspen Security Forum
15-18 July 2025
Aspen, Colorado, U.S.

The Aspen Security Forum (ASF) is the premier national security and foreign policy conference in the United States. Presented by the Aspen Strategy Group, ASF has provided a nonpartisan public venue for domestic and global leaders to discuss the key national security and foreign policy issues of the day since 2010. This Forum convenes an array of decision-makers and thought leaders from Washington, DC, and around the world to discuss solutions to the most pressing national security and foreign policy challenges of our time. The 2025 Forum features the highest caliber of speakers, including domestic and international government officials, business executives, leading academics, and noted journalists from around the world.

More details here.

AIPIO Intelligence Conference
20-22 August 2025
Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park, Sydney, Australia

The AIPIO is the peak representative body for intelligence practitioners in Australia. Our goal is to establish and promote intelligence as a widely recognised profession in Australia. AIPIO membership is drawn from a wide range of domains, including government, national security, defence, law enforcement, business, academia, integrity agencies, regulatory bodies, information technology, and information service providers. The theme for Intelligence 2025 is "A Thriving Intelligence Profession," with subthemes of Leadership, Transformation, Empowerment, and Developing Your Tradecraft. Our highly interconnected world is being reshaped by strategic competition, with growing complexity arising at the national and local levels. All domains of intelligence practice are confronting this complexity, working to glean insights for timely and effective decision-making. A robust intelligence profession is a critical influence and key national resource in securing our defense, security, and well-being. Intelligence 2025 – the AIPIO annual conference – will examine what is needed to support a thriving intelligence profession in Australia during these challenging times. A thriving intelligence profession hinges on effective leadership, transformation, and empowerment to navigate the complexities of an ever-changing global landscape.

More details here.

2025 AFCEA and INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit
18-19 September 2025
National Harbor, Maryland, U.S.

Join us September 18-19 for the 12th annual AFCEA/INSA Intelligence & National Security Summit, the nation's premier unclassified event focused on intelligence and national security. Taking place at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, MD, this flagship event brings together senior leaders from government, industry, and academia for candid, high-impact discussions on the capabilities, technologies, and challenges shaping the U.S. national security mission.

Hear From Senior Leaders: Gain insights from top officials, academic thought leaders, and technical experts on mission priorities.
Explore Game-Changing Technologies: Experience hands-on demonstrations of next-gen technologies transforming intelligence operations.
Connect Across the Community: Networking with 2,000+ professionals from across all segments of public, private, and academic sectors.
Join Mission-Driven Discussion: From AI to acquisition innovation, dive into focused plenaries and breakout discussions on the most urgent national security issues.

More details here.

Symposium on Crisis Early Warning
17-18 September 2025
German Federal Foreign Office, Berlin

We are pleased present the Symposium on Crisis Early Warning organized by the Center for Crisis Early Warning (CCEW) at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich and the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) on “The Potential of Data, AI, and Interdisciplinary Analysis in Situational Awareness and Decision Making”. The Symposium on Crisis Early Warning aims to bring together researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the field to engage in different panels and discussions.

The Symposium on Crisis Early Warning has three aims:

Strengthening interdisciplinary research to advance conflict analysis.
Fostering data-driven strategies for crisis early warning within conflict research.
Establishing a collaborative space for academia, practitioners, policy and decision-makers.

More details here.

Call for Papers:

Twenty years After the Butler Review: Have we learned anything?
Oxford Intelligence Group Conference
Abstracts Due: 1 August 2025
Conference: 6-7 November 2025

The Oxford Intelligence Group was founded at Nuffield College in 2004 to facilitate a forum for a briefing and discussion of the Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction, HC898 14 July 2004 by Lord Robin Butler (aka, the Butler Review). The review concluded that key intelligence used to justify the war with Iraq was unreliable, yet it was still used in the decision-making process. Twenty years later, we celebrate the continuing work of the OIG by revisiting the Butler Review and tracking the successes and failures of the intelligence community since that time. But are the lessons identified by Lord Butler still relevant today? Or were they ever learned? Are the ambiguities and uncertainties of intelligence forecasting adequately understood? As a nation's national security depends on closer collaboration between the intelligence community and commercial corporations, what is the role of academic intelligence studies? What is the connection between strong citizen forces and the defense of liberal democracies? Can there be a 'theory of everything' that synthesizes the past's disparate approaches?

The conference will result in a special issue for the Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. Themes may include but are not limited to the following suggestions:

Retrospective analysis of the Butler Report
Legislative developments, oversight, and organization of national security
Responses to successes – and failures in intelligence forecasting
Did the release of classified material by Edward Snowden make a difference?
The role of public opinion and trust in national security policy
Changing attitudes to OSINT or the role of technology in intelligence analysis
The future of the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance versus bilateral intelligence sharing
Rule-based international order – whose rules are they and are they still relevant to security.

Proposals should include title and abstract (approximately 150-200 words) and a short bio of the presenter(s). The deadline is August 1, 2025.

More details here.

The Israeli Intelligence Studies Conference 2025
Call for Papers: Intelligence Transformations After Failure
Abstracts Due: 31 July 2025
Conference: 28 -29 October 2025

The Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the multi-front war that followed have sparked global debates about intelligence, security, and adaptation. How can intelligence-policy relations be restructured to improve early warning and crisis preparedness in the wake of failure? What organizational reforms emerge after intelligence breakdowns, and how do they shape future effectiveness? What technological and methodological advancements should intelligence agencies integrate to enhance operations and decision-making, and to what extent? Intelligence failures often serve as catalysts for change, driving institutional learning, structural reforms, and innovation. At a time when intelligence agencies are under intense scrutiny and the demand for resilience is greater than ever, this conference explores the theme “Intelligence Transformations After Failure.”

We encourage submissions addressing the following issues, but not limited to them:

The politics of intelligence (e.g., intelligence-policy relations, intelligence oversight, state inquiries, public trust, ethics of secrecy and espionage)
Technological, methodological, and cultural dimensions of early warning & intelligence collection, analysis, and operations
State intelligence relations with the private sector & civil society
Intelligence education for students & practitioners

We also invite nominations of excellent research in Intelligence Studies (IS) for the following awards:

Best Book (or monograph dissertation)
Best Peer-Reviewed Article
Best Graduate Paper

More details here.

Recent Publications:

Flowers, Mark J., “Introducing the Human intelligence Exposures (HEX) Database,” Foreign Policy Analysis
https://doi.org/10.1093/fpa/oraf017

Gasztold, Przemysław, “How to Recruit a Swede? Polish Military Intelligence and Failure of HUMINT in Cold War Sweden,” International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence
https://doi.org/10.1080/08850607.2025.2498271

Macpherson, Andrew, and Glenn P. Hastedt, Topics and Approaches to Studying Intelligence, Vernon Press
https://vernonpress.com/book/1963

Huber, Christopher, “Austria’s Eastern Trade through American Eyes: U.S. Trade Controls in Austria in the Early Cold War from an Intelligence Perspective,” International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence
https://doi.org/10.1080/08850607.2025.2498274