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Biography

Huw Dylan is a Reader in Intelligence and International Security at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. He is also an Associated Researcher at the Centre for Intelligence Studies in the Norwegian Intelligence School. His work is focused on intelligence in the Cold War and beyond, with a specific focus on deception operations, intelligence in diplomacy, and covert action. He has published widely on these fields in academic journals and in the press. His first monograph, Defence Intelligence and the Cold War, was published with Oxford University Press. His latest published book was The CIA and the Pursuit of Security, with Edinburgh University Press. He is currently working on an AHRC funded project on ‘Writers in Intelligence: The Secret State and the Public Sphere’.

Research Interests

  • Intelligence Studies
  • Cold War History
  • Deception Operations
  • Covert Action
  • Secret Diplomacy
  • Intelligence Culture

Teaching

Huw Dylan leads and contributes to many academic and executive education courses focused on intelligence and security. These include the core of the MA Intelligence and International Security, Intelligence in Peace and War. His teaching at the MA level is concentrated on The Past and Present of British Intelligence, which traces the origins and operations of the UK’s intelligence machinery; Espionage; A Global History, which offers an international perspective on the development and evolution of intelligence; and Influence: Covert Action, Active Measures, and Deception, which examines the manner in which states seek to use secret power to pursue their goals.

He has supervised a number of PhD students to completion, and is happy to offer PhD supervision in the following broad areas:

  • Intelligence history
  • Contemporary intelligence and security issues
  • Warning, deception, and surprise
  • British Cold War history
  • US Cold War history

Publications

Chapter
1st Mar 2024

La communaute britannique du renseignement

Translated title of the contribution: The British intelligence communityParker-Vincent, C., Goodman, M. & Dylan, H., 1 Mar 2024, Les mondes du renseignement: Approches, acteurs, enjeux. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, p. 155-16713 p.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Article
1st Jan 2024

Between the secret state and the public sphere: the writer as intermediary

Burton, A., Dylan, H. & Morrison, J., 2024, In: Intelligence and National Security.39, 2, p. 193-2019 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Chapter
13th Feb 2024

Intelligence and International Security

Dylan, H. & Easter, D., 13 Feb 2024, An Introduction to War Studies. Goodman, M. S., Kerr, R. & Moran, M. (eds.). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, p. 65-77

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Article
30th Nov 2023

Generative AI and Intelligence Assessment

Dylan, H., Grossfeld, E. & Devanny, J., 30 Nov 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: The RUSI Journal.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Article
27th Jul 2023

Western Agencies Offer an Open Door for Russian Defectors

Dylan, H., Gioe, D. & Richterova, D., 27 Jul 2023, Foreign Policy.

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle

Article
1st Jan 2023

‘An anarchy of treason’: public history, insider knowledge and the early spy novels of John le Carré

Dylan, H. & Burton, A., 2023, In: Intelligence and National Security.38, 6, p. 902-91918 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Book
14th Nov 2022

A Research Agenda for Intelligence Studies and Government

Dylan, H., Dover, R. & Goodman, M., 14 Nov 2022, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. 246 p.

Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

Other chapter contribution
12th Oct 2022

The Kherson ruse: Ukraine and the art of military deception

Dylan, H., Gioe, D. & Littell, J., 12 Oct 2022, Modern War Institute.Modern War Institute

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingOther chapter contributionpeer-review

Other contribution
26th Sept 2022
Other contribution
17th Mar 2022

Putin's KGB past didn't help him with intelligence on Ukraine

Dylan, H. & Gioe, D., 17 Mar 2022, Washington Post.

Research output: Other contribution

Other contribution
1st Mar 2022

How has public intelligence transformed the way this war has been reported? Comment on the use of intelligence in Russia's War on Ukraine.

Dylan, H., 1 Mar 2022, School of Security Studies, King's College London.

Research output: Other contribution

Book/Film/Article review
1st Jan 2022

Review of Simon Ball. Secret History: Writing the Rise of Britain's Intelligence Services

Dylan, H., 2022, In: JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES.

Research output: Contribution to journalBook/Film/Article reviewpeer-review

Article
1st Jan 2022

Secret Intelligence and Public Diplomacy in the Ukraine War

Dylan, H. & Maguire, T. J., 2022, In: Survival.64, 4, p. 33-7442 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Chapter
11th Oct 2021

Intelligence and the Review: Intelligence power in future peace and war

Dylan, H., 11 Oct 2021, The Integrated Review In Context: Defence and Security in Focus. Devanny, J. (ed.).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Book/Film/Article review
1st Aug 2021

Treacherous Waters: Review of British Naval Intelligence Through the Twentieth Century

Dylan, H., 1 Aug 2021, In: History Today.August

Research output: Contribution to journalBook/Film/Article review

Book/Film/Article review
28th Jul 2021
Book/Film/Article review
27th Jun 2021
Chapter
6th Aug 2020

Culture, Adaptation, and Change in British Intelligence in the Transition from World War to Cold War

Dylan, H., 6 Aug 2020, Cultures of Intelligence in the Era of the World Wars. Ball, S., Gassert, P., Gestrich, A. & Neitzel, S. (eds.). Oxford Univerity Press; Oxford

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Book
1st Jan 2020

The CIA and the Pursuit of Secrecy

Goodman, M., Dylan, H. & Gioe, D., 2020, Edinburgh University Press.

Research output: Book/ReportBook

Article
13th Sept 2019

SIS, Grigori Tokaev, and the London Controlling Section: New perspectives on a Cold War defector and Cold War deception

Dylan, H., 13 Sept 2019, In: War in History.26, 4, p. 517-53822 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Book/Film/Article review
19th Mar 2018

Review: Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance, and the Struggle to Reform the NSA

Dylan, H., 19 Mar 2018, In: RUSI Journal.

Research output: Contribution to journalBook/Film/Article review

Book
1st Jan 2017
Chapter
1st Jan 2017

Secret Interventions and Clandestine Diplomacy

Dylan, H., 2017, The Palgrave Handbook of Security, Risk and Intelligence. Dover, R., Dylan, H. & Goodman, M. S. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 335-353

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Article
2nd Jan 2016

British Intelligence and the Fear of a Soviet Attack on Allied Communications

Goodman, M. S. & Dylan, H., 2 Jan 2016, In: CRYPTOLOGIA.40, 1, p. 15-3218 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Article
1st Jan 2015

Operation TIGRESS: deception for counterintelligence and Britain’s 1952 atomic test

Dylan, H., Jan 2015, In: Journal of Intelligence History.14, 1, p. 1-1515 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Article
1st Jan 2015
Article
1st Jan 2015

Civil War Subterfuge: Wartime Spies American Civil War

Dylan, H., 2015, BBC History.

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle

Book
30th Oct 2014

Defence Intelligence and the Cold War: Britain's Joint Intelligence Bureau 1945-1964

Dylan, H., 30 Oct 2014, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 256 p.

Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

Other contribution
18th Sept 2014

Why is it so hard for British agents to track down hostages?

Dylan, H., 18 Sept 2014, The Telegraph.

Research output: Other contribution

Book/Film/Article review
1st Aug 2014

The Liberty Incident Revealed: The Definitive Account of the 1967 Israeli Attack on the US Navy Spy Ship

Dylan, H., Aug 2014, In: International Journal of Maritime History.26, 3, p. 629-6313 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalBook/Film/Article review

Featured article
1st Jun 2013

Crossing the red line: Chemical weapons use in Syria

Barzashka, I. & Dylan, H., Jun 2013, IHS Jane's Intelligence Review, p. 30-35.

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationFeatured article

Article
1st Feb 2012

The Joint Intelligence Bureau: (Not so) Secret Intelligence for the Post-War world

Dylan, H., Feb 2012, In: Intelligence and National Security.27, 1, p. 27-4519 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Editorial
1st Jan 2012

Intelligence and National Security: A Century of British Intelligence

Dylan, H. & Alexander, M. S., 2012, In: Intelligence and National Security.27, 1, 1 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalEditorial

Book/Film/Article review
1st Jan 2012

Review: Chapman Pincher, Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders and Cover-ups: Six Decades of Espionage

Dylan, H., 2012, In: Intelligence and National Security.27, 3, p. 437-439

Research output: Contribution to journalBook/Film/Article reviewpeer-review

Article
1st Oct 2010

Cover for Thor: Divine Deception Planning for Cold War Missiles

Scott, L. & Dylan, H., Oct 2010, In: The Journal of Strategic Studies.33, 5, p. 759 - 77517 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Article
1st Jan 2009

Britain and the Missile Gap: British Estimates on the Soviet Ballistic Missile Threat, 1957-1961

Dylan, H., Jan 2009, In: Intelligence and National Security.23, 6, p. 777-80630 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review