KCSI Digest - Mar 2026 | King’s Centre for the Study of Intelligence

March 2026 Digest

Contents:

Events
Conferences
Call for Papers
Recent Publications
Podcasts

Events:

Professor Peter Jackson, ‘The First World War and the Birth of Modern Intelligence
5 March 2025
Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, online

This talk, with the University of Glasgow War Studies Seminar, explores how the Great War brought about a revolution in intelligence practices. This revolution was driven by two pre-war technological innovations. The first was the advent of radio as a principal form of communication. The second was the evolution of manned flight. Together these developments ensured that the information war would take place in the air and at sea as well as on (and beneath) the ground. The end result was an explosion of intelligence of all kinds. To manage this new state of affairs the intelligence agencies of all belligerent powers expanded dramatically. Large numbers of civilians – especially women – were for the first time employed in burgeoning intelligence communities that used the latest information processing technologies. Intelligence had become an industrial enterprise in what was by 1917 a truly global conflict.

Prof Peter Jackson is Chair of Global Security at the University of Glasgow. He received his PhD in History from the University of Cambridge, and previously held academic appointments at Yale, Aberystwyth, and Strathclyde as well as visiting appointments at Sciences Po and the Sorbonne. He has served as editor of Intelligence and National Security, the world’s leading journal on intelligence and security issues, and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Historical Society. He co-authored L’essor du renseignement moderne. Une histoire mondiale de l’espionnage (Nouveau Monde Editions, 2025) and is the author of Beyond the Balance of Power: France and the Politics of National Security in the Era of the First World War (Cambridge, 2013).

More details here.

Intelligence and OSINT in the Age of AI
9 March 2026
LBJ School of Public Affairs, Austin, TX

On Monday, March 9, 2026, the Clements-Strauss Intelligence Studies Project (ISP) will host a public event, “Intelligence and OSINT in the Age of AI,” with Randy Nixon, former Director of the CIA’s Open-Source Enterprise. This event will mark the first of ISP’s Off the Wire series. The event is free and open to the public.

Mr. Randy Nixon joined Janes as Chief Customer Officer in October 2025 after over a 30-year career in government service with the CIA and the Army.  At Janes, Nixon is responsible for leading the company’s customer-centric strategy, ensuring that customer needs are the core of product innovation, service delivery, and strategic partnerships. Nixon’s last position in government was leading the Intelligence Community’s (IC) Open-Source Enterprise where he was responsible for open-source intelligence (OSINT) collection, dissemination, and analysis for all 18 agencies of the IC.  Prior to that he was a founder of the CIA’s Office of Advanced Analytics.  In both of these positions, he pioneered the use of artificial intelligence at the CIA.  An awardee of the CIA’s Directorate of Analysis highest award, the Langer Award, and a Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, Nixon spent most of his career leading or working analysis in areas of war or instability.  

More details here.

“The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets” – A Book Talk
11 March 2026
LBJ School of Public Affairs, Austin, TX

On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, the Clements-Strauss Intelligence Studies Project and the Asia Policy Program will host a public book talk on, “The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets” with author David R. Shedd, former Acting Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The event is free and open to the public.

Mr. David R. Shedd served in the U.S. government in a wide variety of national security and intelligence positions for nearly 33 years. In August 2014, he was appointed Acting Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency following four years of service as DIA’s Deputy Director. Until January 2015 when he retired from government service, he led a workforce of more than 16,500 military and civilian employees worldwide.

From May 2007 to August 2010, Mr. Shedd served as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Deputy Director for Policy. Prior to that, Mr. Shedd served in several capacities in the Office of the DNI, the White House’s National Security Council, CIA, and in U.S. embassies abroad.

Since February 2015, Mr. Shedd served as a Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and as an Adjunct Professor at Patrick Henry College until the end of 2022. He works as an independent national security consultant, serves on eight Boards including on the Board of Trustees for Geneva College and Patrick Henry College, and works with several international Missions/NGOs.

He is the author of the recently released HarperCollins published book “The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets.”

More details here.

Spy Chat with Chris Costa and Meredith Cavan
12 March 2026
International Spy Museum, Online

Join us for an online discussion of the latest intelligence, national security, and terrorism issues in the news. Spy Museum Executive Director Chris Costa will lead the briefing and will be joined by Meredith Cavan, the former Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Cavan completed over two decades of distinguished service at the CIA. As the Deputy Director of Public Affairs, she oversaw the Agency’s public engagements, internal communications, and media relations. Earlier in her career, Cavan led the CIA’s Southeast Asia program, driving intelligence operations, analysis, and technical initiatives across more than two dozen countries in a strategically vital region. Cavan’s strategic acumen was honed by her experience briefing US Presidents, members of Congress, and foreign heads of state. Her understanding of national security dynamics and deep substantive expertise is enhanced by her career-spanning close partnerships with the US military, including her role as Special Advisor to Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) and her time at US Indo-Pacific Command. Cavan currently is the founder of Brightchord Strategies, a strategic communications firm, and is an adjunct professor at The College of William and Mary where she teaches a class on Intelligence and National Security.

More details here.

Two Worlds of Seduction: Orchids and Mata Hari
12 March 2026
International Spy Museum, Online

Orchids are commonly associated with sensuality and beauty, seen to have a dark, luxurious charm. The U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG) has a large collection of these fascinating plants. In this collaboration with the International Spy Museum (SPY), explore Mata Hari, a figure who also embodies sensuality, beauty, and dark charm. This evening, join George Guenthner, USBG Gardener (Advanced), and Amanda Ohlke, SPY Director of Adult Education, to discuss the complex interplay of attraction and deception in both the human and natural worlds.

This program is connected to USBG’s 2026 joint orchid show More Than a Flower: The Connective Power of Orchids in collaboration with Smithsonian Gardens and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

More details here.

Dr. Joseph Hatfield, ‘There is No Such Thing as Open Source Intelligence’
13 March 2026
Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, Online

In this talk Dr Hatfield argues that ‘open source intelligence (OSINT)’ is a fundamentally incoherent concept that should be abandoned. He does so in two steps. First, by challenging the underlying criteria used to demarcate it as a separate ‘INT’ among its more traditional peers. Second, through an historical critique that argues that ‘OSINT’ as a conceptual category served a transitory stage that has long passed. That is, it helped intelligence practitioners and scholars appreciate the influx of valuable unclassified information made newly available by the World Wide Web in the 1990s, but the advantages gained from this notion have now declined and the concept is now a liability. By discarding the term altogether, and recategorizing openly derived sources of information back into their traditional homes, significant conceptual and practical benefits can be attained.

Dr Joseph M. Hatfield is an Assistant Professor in the Cyber Science department at the United States Naval Academy. He recently retired from active duty as a naval intelligence officer, having served in a variety of overseas operational assignments before coming to the Naval Academy. He earned his Ph.D. in the department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge and publishes regularly on cyber- and intelligence-related topics.

More details here.

Inside Intelligence: How to prevent Intelligence Failure
18 March 2026
Johns Hopkins, Online

Join MS in Intelligence Analysis Program Director Michael Ard as he hosts Kathleen M. Vogel, associate dean for faculty at Arizona State University’s Rob Walton College of Global Futures. Vogel will draw on her insights from the study of knowledge production on security and intelligence problems, and her expertise on biological weapons issues, for a discussion on how to prevent intelligence failure.

Vogel is also a professor in Arizona State’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society and a senior global futures scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. She served previously in the U.S. Department of State as a Jefferson Science Fellow in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and as William C. Foster Fellow in the Office of Proliferation Threat Reduction in the Bureau of Nonproliferation. She has also spent time as a visiting scholar at Sandia National Laboratories. Vogel holds a PhD in bio-physical chemistry from Princeton University.

More details here.

Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster
18 March 2026
International Spy Museum, Online

An abolitionist Southern belle turned spy sounds like a character in a novel, but Elizabeth Van Lew was one hundred percent real. Join award-winning journalist Gerri Willis as she uncovers an unsung spy hero of the Civil War. Elizabeth Van Lew came from a society family in Richmond and when the South seceded from the Union, she went undercover. Van Lew used her status and social skills to assist Union prisoners and ultimately build a spy network that would provide Union General Ulysses S. Grant with crucial daily intelligence. In Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster, Willis explores who worked with Van Lew and how she deployed her agents through the Confederate capital. From legends of a spy in the Confederate White House to the actual hardboiled work of the Van Lew network which included free people of color dangerously pretending to be enslaved, Willis has captured the tense environment that Van Lew operated in as a patriot in a high stakes world turned upside down. She’ll share her fresh research and how there is still much to be learned about the American Civil War.

More details here.

Wanted! Jan Marsalek
19 March 2026
Deutsches Spionage Museum, Berlin

He was on the run for years – then a team of international journalists tracked down former Wirecard manager Jan Marsalek in Moscow and surveilled him for over a year. Some members of this investigative team are now themselves being surveilled and threatened by Putin's henchmen. And governments remained inactive for two years.

From Moscow, Marsalek plots kidnappings, directs spies, and travels to the war zone in Ukraine. His cell phone regularly logs into the FSB headquarters, the Russian domestic intelligence agency, in Moscow. Under one of his at least six aliases, such as "Alexander Nelidov," the internationally wanted fraudster, who swindled billions, established himself in Moscow as early as 2020. Since then, he has been on the run. The German Federal Prosecutor General is also investigating Marsalek on suspicion of espionage.

Marsalek is supported by a network of former Austrian intelligence officers, Russian senior officers, and brutal mercenaries, all prepared to commit any act. For example, in May 2025, six Bulgarians were sentenced in London to prison terms ranging from five to ten years for espionage. They acted on Marsalek's orders, and numerous links point to Austria. The spying on a US military base near Stuttgart was also included in the verdict. This trial was considered one of the biggest espionage trials in the United Kingdom. Please join us for a discussion in person. *This discussion will be conducted in German.*

More details here.

Dr. Peter Grace, ‘Uncertain Futures. The Crisis at CIA from 1947-1950 and the Arrival of the Intelligence Intellectuals’
20 March 2026
Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, Online

From the very beginning, CIA was beset with problems. As the Cold War developed, criticism of the Agency mounted, and accusations of intelligence failure lowered its position in the national security hierarchy. When the Korean War broke out, the Director of Central Intelligence was not invited to Truman’s high level pow wow. In this talk, based on his new book, The Intelligence Intellectuals: Social Scientists and the Making of the CIA(Georgetown University Press), Peter Grace discusses both the problems of dealing with uncertainty in strategic intelligence, and the then uncertain future of CIA. A new director was brought in, and he in turn ordered professors to come to Washington and reform the intelligence product.

Dr Peter Grace is a lecturer in New Zealand Foreign Policy at the University of Otago, where he serves as Co-Director of the Otago National Security School. His academic research focuses on intelligence, legitimacy, and foreign policy. His recently completed doctoral thesis examines the “intelligence intellectuals,” tracing how social scientists helped legitimise the early Central Intelligence Agency in the United States. Alongside his teaching and research, he is a committee member of the annual Otago Foreign Policy School. Prior to entering academia, Dr Grace worked for local and international advertising agencies as an award-winning creative director and ran his own marketing and communications firm for fifteen years. He lives in Dunedin with his wife, Beth, in a converted nineteenth-century synagogue.

More details here.

Putin’s German Mercenaries
26 March 2026
Deutsches Spionage Museum, Berlin

Three German "disposable agents" allegedly spied on infrastructure in Germany for planned attacks after their deployments to combat missions for Russia. In October 2025, they were sentenced to prison terms and suspended sentences. The Federal Prosecutor's Office was convinced of the main defendant's "profound hatred of Ukraine." The court found him guilty of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state through his combat activities. He is also accused of espionage for Russia. Together with his two co-defendants, he allegedly spied on military installations in Germany until April 2024 and planned, among other things, arson attacks and sabotage against military infrastructure and important railway lines.

Over 800 German citizens are fighting as mercenaries for Russia in Ukraine. An underestimated threat? There are numerous examples of Russia's hybrid warfare against Germany and Europe.

What are German security authorities monitoring after various sabotage attacks, such as the one on DHL cargo planes in 2024? The activities of Russia's intelligence services have reached a threatening level. German investigative journalists, too, are finding themselves targeted by Putin's henchmen because of their work on this threat!

*This discussion will be conducted in German.*

More details here.

Conferences:

Intelligence Studies Consortium (ISC) Spring 2026 Symposium
24 March 2026
Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

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.

More details here.

Call for Papers:

2026 Joint Special Operations University Call for Papers
Submissions Due: 27 March 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.

International Journal of intelligence and CounterIntelligence
Call for Papers: Intelligence in the Third Wave of Democratization
Submissions Due: 30 March 2026
Author Notification: 31 July 2026
Revised Papers Due: 15 October 2026

Of democratic institution building reform, intelligence democratization-achieving and maintaining a trade-off between intelligence effectiveness and transparency-is one of the most challenging processes. The legacy of the past-the stigma associated with intelligence agencies' human rights abuses and the legacy personnel resistance and reluctance to reform, and lack of expertise in intelligence are but a few obstacles to institutionalizing effective intelligence agencies that are also transparent and accountable. This is an extremely timely topic. Across the world, we see signs of democratic backsliding, the re-emergence of authoritarian practices within democracies and unfinished reform agendas in many regions of the Third Wave. These dynamics make it timely to revisit both the successes and failures of intelligence democratization and to reflect on the lessons that past transitions can offer to current and future reformers.

This issue will bring together theoretical and empirical academic, policy, and practitioner perspectives on failures and progress in intelligence democratization worldwide. Topics of interest (not limited to):

Intelligence democratization reforms: failures and progress
Legal framework, human rights, democratic civilian control/oversight, and accountability
Transparency (including Freedom of Information Act (FOLA), media, outreach, and public trust in intelligence
Intelligence leaks and whistleblowing in a democracy
Cultural representation of intelligence-democracy • Intelligence politicization in a democracy
Intelligence professionalization and effectiveness in a democracy (recruitment practices, career paths, education training, ethics, interagency and international cooperation)
Transitional Justice (Access to files, Lustration, Vetting, and Committees on Truth and Reconciliation)
Foreign influence-including international organizations (EU, NATO, UN)-in intelligence democratization
Technology and intelligence democratization: friend or foe?
Reform as an unfinished or reversible process

More details here.

Call for Papers: Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association (NISA) International Conference 2026: Resilient Intelligence in the Era of Democratic Backsliding
Abstracts Due: 1 April 2026
Conference: 2-3 December 2026
Location TBA

The Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association (NISA) invites scholars, practitioners, and other interested professionals to participate in an international conference on “Resilient Intelligence in an Era of Democratic Backsliding”, to be held on 2 and 3 December 2026 in The Netherlands. Location to be announced.

With authoritarianism on the rise, democratic societies face mounting pressures on their security, governance, and institutional integrity. Intelligence and security services play a crucial—yet contested—role in safeguarding democracy and the rule of law. This conference explores how intelligence and security services can remain resilient, independent, and legitimate within a democratic framework.

We welcome contributions that critically examine the role, functioning, and governance of intelligence and security services in this context of democratic backsliding, from both an historical and a contemporary perspective, from several disciplines, and from practitioners and scholars. Relevant themes include, but are not limited to:

Intelligence and democratic resilience
Intelligence cooperation and information sharing across national contexts with varying levels of democracy
Politicization and political independence of intelligence
Democratization of intelligence
Political and societal legitimacy
Accountability and oversight
Intelligence in times of geopolitical uncertainty
Intelligence responses to hybrid threats and authoritarian influence
Normative, legal, and ethical dimensions of intelligence work in an increasingly authoritarian world order.

Participants are invited to submit proposals for one of the following formats:

Academic paper with an accompanying presentation. Selected academic papers may be considered for publication in a special issue of a leading international peer-reviewed journal.
Academic presentation without a paper
Practitioner presentation
Panel discussion with a maximum of three experts or practitioners
Interviews

The organizing committee explicitly encourages participation from academics at all career stages, including PhD candidates and early-career researchers, as well as practitioners from intelligence, security, policy, businesses and related fields.

More details here.

Call for Papers: Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO) 2026 Intelligence Conference
Abstracts Due: 10 April 2026
Full Paper Due: 17 July 2026
Conference: 26-28 August 2026
Melbourne, Australia

The Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO) is pleased to invite submissions for its Call for Papers (CFP) for the 35th Annual National Conference – Intelligence 2026, taking place at the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins from 26–28 August 2026.

The conference theme, ‘Intelligence in Action: Strategy to Delivery’, will examine how intelligence capabilities are conceived, operationalized, and measured. Within this overarching theme, we will explore three critical sub-themes:

Operational Agility
Partnerships
Impact and Integration

Each sub-theme reflects a core component required to sustain, evolve, and future-proof the intelligence profession in Australia. AIPIO now invites abstract submissions that are clearly aligned with the Intelligence 2026 theme. We welcome contributions from intelligence practitioners, academics, students, and industry professionals from Australia and abroad. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to prepare a full paper and deliver a presentation at Intelligence 2026.

A detailed synopsis of all presentations will be included in the post-conference Intelligence Proceedings. In addition, selected papers may be considered for publication in the peer-reviewed AIPIO Journal, subject to scholarly merit and the outcomes of a blind review process.

More details here.