Nearly one year after the first Intelligence College in Europe’s Outreach event in Brussels, to promote the Routledge Handbook on Disinformation drafted by four of its Academics, ICE had the pleasure to organise a second Academic Network activity on Monday 31^st March !

Hosted by the French MoD Think Tank (IRSEM) and his very dynamic Director, Mr Philippe Perchoc, this event marked the launch of the first, major, academic achievement of the newly established ICE Academic Advisory Board, a special edition of the global peer review “International journal of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence (IJICI)” of Jan Goldman.

The theme, totally adapted to the new EU Strategies, launched with the Niniistö report, and to the new “Security Commission” concept, was “Towards a common European Intelligence Culture !”

The event, which has mobilized despite the strikes, 60 attendees, was organised around two main actions, preceded by a welcome coffee :

• An High Level roundtable, for an Intelligence Policy discussion around the theme, During the first event with Director Daniel Markic, from EU INTCEN and SIAC, representing the EU Strategic intelligence community, Mrs Natalie Pauwels, HoU in the Enlargment DG, representing the EU clients and Mr Bart Raeymaekers, HoU Security in DG HRS, representing the EU Security community, moderated by ICE.PS Director.
• An academic spotlight event, moderated by researcher Cristina Ivan, with 3 active members of the Academic Board :
  • the President of the Intelligence Studies Section (ISS) of the International Studies Association (ISA), Dr Ruben Arcos,
  • Dr DH. Tuinier, from the Universities of Breda and Leiden, representing the Netherland Intelligence community and a recent author of a very interesting research on the role of trust and inter-personal relations in intelligence partnership
  • Dr Irena Chiru, Head of the International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE) European Chapter, manager of the Romanian Intel Academy  Academic Spotlight: New Directions in European Intelligence Studies
  • At this dynamic panel moderated by Dr. Cristina Ivan, leading academics explored the future of intelligence education in Europe.

The Speakers shared their insights on:

• Joint European intelligence curricula
• Integrating technology and new perspectives in training
• Building resilience against hybrid threats and cognitive challenges
• The impact of AI and ethical frameworks in intelligence education

This session marked a significant step toward envisioning a collaborative, resilient, and future-ready European intelligence education framework and reaffirmed the value of academic dialogue in addressing shared security challenges.

The High Level roundtable has given, before a nice Q&A session with the public, the occasion to the Director of EU INTCEN to insist on the timeliness aspect (delivering a timely intel-based service to the good decision-makers in a protected and trustworthy manner), on the increased demand for intelligence in Brussels and on the increasing impact of intelligence, thanks to regular briefings to the HRVP, in PSC and to the Foreign Affairs and Defence ministers. To continue in this impetus, the “SIAC Strengthening” and better secure communications means will be key. 

Natalie Pauwels has developed her, informed, vision on how to do better on some precise topics, explaining the growing needs be it in security awareness, trainings or in intelligence support, insisting on the FIMI threats in candidate countries.

Mr Raeymaekers has highlighted the future needs on intelligence from a security perspective and presented, in the name of Ilkka Salmi (DDG HRS), the Commission’s future plans for more Resilience and Security. The driving idea is to evolve from a ”firefighting mentality” to a more holistic approach, an “all security cycle”. For this purpose, the creation of a new Integrated Security operation center (ISOC) will be key.

During the Q&A phase, were addressed, inter alia, the need to make some progress in terms of secure environment (creating a “trusted” environment with smooth, secure, inter-institutional communication means, more widespread clearances,…), in terms of visibility of the existing EU intelligence & Security bodies and the need, at least as important, of a robust training program.

As you see, an important discussion for the Intelligence College in Europe, which is already working with the Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity (SIAC, regrouping EU INTCEN and its military counterpart) with the various EU Security branches and with the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) !

If you add to this high quality and rich intelligence policy roundtable, the lessons learned from the Special edition of the IJICI review plus the conclusions of the scientific debate on how to use better the existing ESDC /ICE bodies to enhance the needed common culture, a very rich Academic Outreach Journey !

Thanks to all the attendees, true to their engagement despite strikes and thank again to the IRSEM Europe team, without who this event will not have taken place !