Dear all,
Please see below for upcoming events and opportunities which may be of interest to you.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. KCSI panel: ‘John le Carre, soy fiction, and intelligence’
2. Spy Museum panel: ‘Agent of Betrayal – The Double Life of Robert Hanssen’
3. ‘Under investigation’ with National Archives of Australia
4. ‘The Foundations of American Intelligence’ with Mark Stout
5. ‘Virtual Spy Chat’ with Zamawang Almemar
6. Cambridge Intelligence Seminar
7. ‘The Hampsted Spies – James Klugman’ with Stewart Purvis
8. ‘In conversation about John le Carre’s secret’ with Adam Sisman
9. ‘Tracking China’s Nuclear Weapons Program’ with Renny Babiarz
10. ‘The Psychology of Intelligence’ with Enrico Suardi
11. NASIH Brown Bag Lunches
12. Conference on ‘Spies, Lies, and Nukes’
13. UK JIO – job opening in analytical tradecraft
EVENTS
1. KCSI panel: ‘John le Carre, soy fiction, and intelligence’
12 October
KCL Strand, London, UK
While John le Carré’s importance in the literary landscape is no longer in doubt, his impact on the study and the practice of intelligence has yet to be assessed. To mark the release of the Intelligence and National Security special issue 'John le Carré, Spy fiction and Intelligence', KCSI is organizing a unique event, where Adam Sisman, le Carré’s biographer; Alan Judd, longtime friend and fellow writer; and intelligence scholars (Pauline Blistène, Ariel Sobel, Paul McGarr), will discuss le Carré’s legacy and impact on intelligence and the study of international affairs. The event will be followed by a drinks reception.
More details here
2. ‘Agent of Betrayal: The Double Life of Robert Hanssen’
24 October
International Spy Museum, Washington DC, USA
Join International Spy Museum Historian and Curator Andrew Hammond for a live panel with Major Garrett, host of the CBS News podcast Agent of Betrayal; David Charney, the psychiatrist who met with Hanssen for a year after he went to jail; John Fox Jr, FBI historian; and retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent David Major, who knew Hanssen as a colleague. They’ll explore how an FBI agent sworn to protect America’s most precious secrets instead became a mole and leaked them during the Cold War and beyond.
More details here
3. ‘Under investigation’ with National Archives of Australia
24 October
Adelaide, Australia
This event explores stories of espionage, sabotage, and politically motivated acts in Australia, drawing on security and intelligence files from the First World War to the 1950s.
More details here
4. ‘The Foundations of American Intelligence’ with Mark Stout
26 October
Online
Joint host Michael Ard for a conversation with Mark Stout, who has taught in Advanced Academic Programs since 2007. From 2013 to 2021 Mark was the director of the Master of Arts in Global Security Studies and he directed the post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Intelligence from 2014 to 2019. Stout previously worked for thirteen years as an intelligence analyst, first with the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and later with the CIA. Stout also worked on the Army Staff in the Pentagon and at the Institute for Defense Analyses. In addition, from 2010 to 2013 Stout was the historian at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.
More details here
5. ‘Virtual Spy Chat’ with Zamawang Almemar
26 October
Online
Joi 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 Zamawang Almemar, a Fellow at the National Defense University.
Almemar has over a decade of experience supporting Special Operations Forces in Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction as a Program Manager at the Department of Defense. She has produced numerous publications on spreading awareness about the chemical and biological threats from non-state actors and has conducted countless seminars and briefs to senior leaders and military commanders in the US and the international community.
More details here
6. Cambridge Intelligence Seminar
27 October
Online
The War in Ukraine, Russia, and its Prospects: Is Intelligence Doomed to Fail?
Tim Potier was the only Western academic to spend five years teaching and researching at MGIMO, an elite section of Moscow University, before the invasion of Ukraine, as well as during the first month of the Ukraine war. He is Professor of International Law and Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
In order to attend this event you must be subscribed to our mailing list. The Zoom link will be distributed in advance of the session. To subscribe, please email Dr Dan Larsen (drl37@cam.ac.uk) with a brief indication of your affiliation or interest in the Seminar.
7. ‘The Hampsted Spies – James Klugman’ with Stewart Purvis
1 November
Burgh House, London, UK
James Klugman was a Belsize Park boy who devoted his life to serving Stalin and the Soviet Union. He became a Communist at public school and at university in the 1930s he recruited to Communism the students who became the Cambridge Five. He even did a bit of espionage himself, but MI5 couldn’t get enough evidence to use in court.
During WW2 he became an officer in Britain’s Special Operations Executive doing Moscow’s bidding. In the latest talk on ‘The Hampstead Spies’ Stewart Purvis tells Klugman’s story from Belsize Park to Paris, Beijing, and Moscow.
More details here
8. ‘In conversation about John le Carre’s secret’ with Adam Sisman
11 November
Bristol, UK
Adam Sisman's new book, The Secret Life of John le Carre, reveals le Carre to have been a serial adulterer. This is the key to his fiction, the answer to his repeated hints about lies and betrayal' he needed the stimulus of risk to provide energy for his writing. Philandering brough an element of excitement to the otherwise humdrum life of a bestselling novelist. Now that he is dead, we can know him better.
More details here
9. ‘Tracking China’s Nuclear Weapons Program’ with Renny Babiarz
15 November
Online
Join host Michael Ard for a curated conversation with Renny Babiarz, a Chinese nuclear weapons specialist and geospatial intelligence analyst. This talk explores general connections between geopolitics and geospatial disciplines, and specifically shows how geospatial analysis can lead to important geopolitical developments. For example, recent developments at China's Lop Nur Nuclear Weapons Test Site suggest a dramatically new era of nuclear weapon testing and development is about to begin.
Renny Babiarz is vice president of analysis and operations for AllSource Analysis, where he manages geospatial intelligence analysis projects on security, economic, and artificial intelligence issues for government, non-government, and private-sector customers. Babiarz has over 20 years of experience researching China’s political and military systems, including 10 years of experience in the field of GEOINT analysis focusing on Asia and weapons of mass destruction.
More details here
10. ‘The Psychology of Intelligence’ with Enrico Suardi
16 November
The Institute of World Politics, Washington DC, USA
This event will provide a historical overview of the involvement of the behavioral sciences in addressing society’s security needs during peacetime and wartime. The U.S. Constitution entrusts to the government the responsibility for the common defense and general welfare of the nation. National security is today understood as the response to threats by nation-states and non-state actors to the domestic tranquility. The organization of national security requires shared efforts at federal, state, and local levels.
Dr. Enrico Suardi is director of psychiatry at Saint Elizabeths Hospital, director of forensic services at the Ross Center in Washington, D.C., and the 2024-25 president-elect of the Washington Psychiatric Society
More details here
11. NASIH Brown Bag Lunches
17 October
Liza Mundy
The Secret History of Women at the CIA
14 November
Elena Grossfeld
Soviet jokes as a basis for intelligence analysis in the Cold War and beyond
All brown bags take place on Tuesdays, 12:00 – 1:00 PM Eastern. Please note there is now an attendance fee for non-members. Registration details here
12. Conference on ‘Spies, Lies, and Nukes’
10-12 November
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
For this third, enhanced running of Spies, Lies & Nukes join Valerie Plame and some of her legendary, highly decorated, and experienced CIA colleagues as they pull back the curtain on the real life “wilderness of mirrors” that is international espionage.
Hear from and engage with the best of CIA’s spies to better understand today’s world: from emergent threats to never-before-told spy operations, black market nuclear scams, how to recruit a spy, the growth of domestic terrorism, how social media is used in espionage, and keeping your employees and your company safe from foreign spies.
More details here
OPPORTUNITES
13. UK JIO – job opening in analytical tradecraft
PHIA Senior Analytical Tradecraft Officer
We are looking for candidates who have wide-ranging experience in performing, facilitating and quality assuring rigorous, structured analysis. They will be passionate about raising analytical standards across the profession of intelligence analysis and will demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively to lead and deliver large cross-agency projects.
The Senior Analytical Tradecraft Officer’s role is to advise, support and challenge intelligence analysts tasked with assessing complex issues of national security. Working as part of the team supporting the Professional Head of Intelligence Assessment (PHIA), based in the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO), the successful candidate will have a leading role in developing and leading the application of analytical tradecraft in all-source intelligence assessment.
More details here
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https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/warstudies/about/dataprotection.aspx
Kind regards,
David Schaefer