Skip to main content

Call for Nominations for The 2024 Polly Corrigan Book Prize

Join us for a fascinating talk with our KCSI visiting fellow Antonio Diaz, who will discuss intelligence ecosystems.

About this event

Event description:

Brief event description: The adaptation of intelligence services to changes in the security landscape is a recurring aspect within intelligence agencies. Different reforms and proposals in recent decades have covered virtually all options available in Organisation Theory, ranging from centralisation to decentralisation, including the creation of specific agencies and coordination bodies. Perhaps the most recent development is the outsourcing of intelligence work to the private sector. However, many of these dynamics appear inadequate to respond to a scenario characterised by two very specific variables that represent the loss of the state's monopoly and exclusivity in intelligence functions: the emergence of new actors generating a significant volume of data and the paramount importance of technology in intelligence work. This presentation explores the potential utility of ecosystem theory in adapting intelligence agencies to the new needs of the state. The concept of an intelligence community would be surpassed by that of an intelligence ecosystem, which would focus not only on internal adaptations but also on new forms of interaction with the environment.

Speaker's biography:

Antonio Díaz is an associate professor of Criminal Law at the University of Cadiz (Spain), and vice dean of the Faculty of Law. Díaz has been a visiting research fellow at the International Centre for Security Analysis (King's College, London) in 2001, the Brunel Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (Brunel University, London), the University of Glasgow, and Dublin City University. He has been recognized with prizes in 1997 and 2003 from the Spanish Ministry of Defence for his research on security. He previously served as the deputy editor of The International Journal of Intelligence, Security, and Public Affairs and has worked as an expert evaluator in the FP7, H2020, Horizon Europe, and MSCA programs. Currently, he manages the cooperative agreement between the University of Cadiz and the Spanish Intelligence Service. He is also a member of the Forum against disinformation campaigns in the field of National Security of the National Security Department, which is attached to the Office of the Presidency in the current Spanish Government.