In addition to its regular activities (Thematic Seminars, Outreach and Academic Programme), the Intelligence College in Europe organises specific events for its Members, and partakes in others. The events involving the College are of different nature (official ceremonies, specific meetings on intelligence-related topics, etc).
Last event
ICE Round Table at the Paris Defence and Strategy Forum 2026
The Intelligence College in Europe participated for the third time in the international Paris Defence and Strategy Forum, organised by the Defence Academy of the École militaire (ACADEM). This forum, which follows on from the more nationally oriented event La Fabrique Défense (LFD), where the Intelligence College was also present, gained increased significance this year.
We took part in this international event organised by our ACADEM partner through three academic activities:
On 24 March, to mark the entry of the French Ministry of Defence think tank IRSEM into our academic network and to promote our European academic network ahead of our upcoming Munich academic conference, we organised an academic roundtable entitled “Intelligence failures: how to avoid or address them”. It was moderated by Dr Clément Renault (IRSEM) and featured three specialists in the field: Dr Dan Lomas (University of Nottingham and the Oxford Intelligence Group), a specialist on the Butler Report on the Iraq War; Professor Philippe Silberzahn (Emlyon business school), author, inter alia, of "Constructing Cassandra"; and Dr Bjørn Grønning (NORIS), author of one of the most recent non anglo-saxon studies on 16 cases of intelligence failures, published by Edinburgh University Press ("Contemporary Intelligence Warning Cases").
https://youtu.be/qItICyj6gEA?si=dQLV1bDfbvDQdIhO
On 24 and 25 March, as has been the case since 2022 (LFD, then PDSF 2024, 2025 and 2026), the winners of the Intelligence College-supported Lithuanian outreach initiative “Intelligence Officer for a Week” were invited to the forum. Since its inception, the College has been part of the selection board and provides the first prize in order to support and promote this excellent initiative. The Lithuanian intelligence community and the Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University, led by Dr Margarita Šešelgytė, offer students the opportunity to discover the work of an intelligence analyst - an excellent outreach initiative that could be extended to other countries.
Presentation of the College and its activities during an interview conducted by Etienne Girard (L’Express) in the “Café stratégique” session on 26 March.
https://youtu.be/blCFEkqaUkA?si=SUGlYHxliW_4h7Qv
In 2025, we delivered the same number of activities, with as a highlight the keynote speech by Dr Gerhard Conrad on the challenges facing European intelligence, ahead of the ICE German Presidency.
The Intelligence College was pleased to welcome a significant number of colleagues and partners from intelligence services and academia, and to showcase its achievements - particularly in the academic field - which will culminate in June 2026 in a major academic conference in Germany and the first-ever European Intelligence Prize. The strong attendance at our roundtable, with a fully packed Castex conference room, clearly demonstrates the growing interest in a European intelligence culture.