Activities

To carry out its missions, the Intelligence College in Europe organises for its Members three types of activities in close cooperation with Academia: thematic seminars, outreach activities and an academic programme.

The activities proposed by the College are developed in close cooperation with Members. They comply with the rules of ethics and security common to our intelligence services. In the academic year 2023-2024 alone, ICE organized 30 activities, nearly as much as the total number of activities conducted in the two previous academic years for the benefit of 1300 Intelligence officers & EU officials.

In this landmark fifth anniversary year, the ICE Permanent Secretariat has undertaken a significant initiative to enhance its visibility. This effort aims to showcase the high level of cooperation already achieved, both to the general public and to key European stakeholders. Its participation to the Paris Defence & Security Forum (PDSF 2024) was one important element of this strategy. Additionally, the initiative underscores the benefits for academics of joining and engaging with the ICE network.

The Intelligence College in Europe offers its Members thematic seminars on various subjects of interest to European national intelligence communities. Through workshops, discussions and roundtables, these seminars are an opportunity to exchange views between intelligence services, as well as with experts from academia.

Seminars take place in the host member country. However, the College has also started organising webinars due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

In the academic year 2023-2024, four Thematic Seminars and Webinars have been organised. The seminars counted over 300 intelligence officers.

Last seminar

European Security and Defence Course – UCLM Toledo

Spain, currently assuming the Intelligence College in Europe (ICE) Presidency after the EU Presidency in 2023, has covered a need repeatedly expressed in the Steering Committee meetings of the College: the Intelligence Officers of our Services should be aware of the European structures.

For this purpose, Spain has organized a high-level postgraduate course, in an hybrid format, beginning in March 2024 by E-learning sessions and concluding week 38 by an on-site course in Toledo.

This demanding course was organized with the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) and its excellent Center of European Studies “Luis Ortega Alvarez”, providing the possibility of obtaining an official certification according to the European Framework of Bologna.

This very “first” has been a success, not only attracting a great number of attendees coming from a very large number of countries, representing all the regions of Europe, but also attendees of high quality, very well positioned in their national community.

The lectures delivered the last day of the course by Ricardo sanchéz-Blanco, Deputy Director General for External Relations and Commercial Affairs, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Arturo Relanzón, CNI Secretary General and by Francois Fischer, Director of PS.ICE have opened a very interactive, living and high quality exchange on Intelligence & Security topics of interest at the European level.  It has confirmed the excellent impression given on September 20 th by the presentation of the tutored final projects.

This “flagship” course, testament of the quality of the investment of all the attendees and of the teaching delivered by a selected group of Academics led by Isaac Martin Delgado and Juan-Luis Manfredi, will highly likely be reproduced. It fits perfectly in the ICE “EU line of effort” which also includes awareness courses in Collège de Bruges, actions as network associated partner of the European Defence & Security College (ESDC) but also dedicated ICE courses and Conferences in Brussels.

Previous seminars

WEBINAR EUROPEAN UNION – LATIN AMERICA STRATEGIC RELATIONS

Seminar on Intelligence and Decision Making, Madrid

Thematic Seminar on “How to implement strategic issues in the intelligence work?”

French seminar on open-source intelligence (OSINT)

“Psychology in the Service of Intelligence” Seminar

Seminar on “Intelligence Services and Society”

ESDC Doctoral School Conference, Brussels 11th July 2022

Intelligence Cooperation in the 21st Century

Anticipation by Intelligence, Seminar in Vienna

Intelligence and Space Seminar in Paris

Seminar “The Societal Response To Radicalisation And The Role Of The Security Environment”

Webinar “Hybrid Threats and their Impact on European Security”

Webinar “European security challenges”

The College’s outreach scope includes every non-operational subject of interest to European national intelligence communities, and relating to general methodology and specific strategic issues. These actions, carried out through an academic prism, can be initiated by the College or at the behest of the European institutions and academic partners.

The outreach sessions organised by the College are mainly intended for national and European decision-makers, employees of European institutions, as mentioned in Article 13 of the Treaty of the European Union, as well as members of the academic world. Broader civil society, such as students and researchers, can take part in outreach sessions, under certain conditions.

Outreach sessions can also take the form of professional and academic publications produced by academics or intelligence professionals, and published in academic journals or online.

The number of outreach activities is steadily increasing, with 15 activities that took place during the academic year 2023/2024.

The Intelligence College in Europe offers to intelligence officers of member countries a range of specific courses and education training developed in close partnership with academia, to help build better mutual understanding.

The College’s Academic Programme does not promote a single vision, but can facilitate contact with different strategic cultures and completes training offers developed at the national level.

The Academic Programme aims at providing flexible and professional training to College Members. The courses are organised in modules and meet the concrete needs of intelligence professionals.

It exists in two formats: a yearly executive education programme and post-graduate courses.

During the academic year 2023/2024, five sessions of the Executive Education Programme were successfully organised, gathering almost 180 participants. Six Postgraduate Courses have been conducted, engaging over 150 participants.

The Academic Network is growing year after year. It  consists for now of 36 academic institutions, academies, universities and think tanks from 18 different member countries.