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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

Media

TV / Video
26th Oct 2024

David Gioe, Huw Dylan & Elena Grossfeld: How Russian Intel Serves—and Fails—the Tsar

In our largest-ever gathering in "the bunker," scholars David Gioe, Huw Dylan, and Elena Grossfeld discuss their latest article, "The Autocrat’s Indispensable Service: How Russian Intelligence Secured Vladimir Putin’s Regime After Failing Him in Ukraine."
TV / Video
24th Sept 2024

David Gioe, Huw Dylan & Elena Grossfeld: Putin’s (mis)Management of Russian Intelligence Assessments

This is a conversation with the three esteemed authors of a paper entitled “The autocrat’s intelligence paradox: Vladimir Putin’s (mis)management of Russian strategic assessment in the Ukraine War. Huw Dylan, David V. Gioe and Elena Grossfeld

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

Chapter
8th Feb 2024

Intelligence and International Security

Dylan, H. & Easter, D., 8 Feb 2024, An Introduction to War Studies. Goodman, M. S., Kerr, R. & Moran, M. (eds.). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, p. 65-7713 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