Spain Leads Flagship European Intelligence Training Programme
In 2024, Spain, holding the presidency of the Intelligence College in Europe (IntelCollege), addressed a key need raised by the College’s Steering Committee: ensuring that intelligence officers are equipped to understand European structures and to support EU security and intelligence agencies.
To meet this challenge, Spain’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) launched a high-level postgraduate course in partnership with the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) and its renowned Luis Ortega Álvarez Center for European Studies. Delivered in a hybrid format—combining online sessions with in-person classes in Toledo—the programme offers participants an official certification aligned with the European Bologna Framework.
Following the success of the inaugural edition, Spain repeated the initiative in 2024. The second course concluded on Thursday, 11 September, with a certificate ceremony and keynote address by the Secretary General of the CNI, who personally underlined the importance Spain places on this initiative.
This programme stands as a model of cooperation between the intelligence community and academia, directly supporting one of IntelCollege’s core missions: preparing intelligence officers to work effectively together at the European level, whether in minilateral or multilateral formats.
As one of the College’s flagship training programmes, this demanding course fosters a shared knowledge base among participants, deepens their understanding of European institutions, and strengthens the personal and professional bonds that will underpin future cooperation across Europe’s intelligence community.
Postgraduate course on “Strategic Leadership in Security and Intelligence”
For the third time in this format, the Academia Națională de Informații “Mihai Viteazul” (ANIMV) of Romania, in cooperation with the European Security and Defence College (ESDC), organised a one-week course on “Strategic Leadership in Security and Intelligence” in Bucharest. The course was open to participants from the Intelligence College in Europe (Intel College).
The Intel College was honoured to open the session on Monday, 22 September, and to contribute with several lecturers. Designed as an interactive and highly practical programme, the course targets high-potential young managers who are preparing to lead units or directorates in complex and high-pressure environments. Particular emphasis was placed on human resources management and interactive workshops, enabling participants from different countries to learn from one another’s experiences.
The Intelligence College in Europe is proud both to support and to benefit from this now well-established ANIMV–ESDC initiative. Since 2023, the course has increasingly reflected a strong European dimension, with lecturers drawn from across the continent, in the true spirit of ESDC and the Intel College.
Coming directly after the Toledo EU Expert Course, this event marked an excellent start to the new academic year of the Intelligence College in Europe, and it stands as a fine example of the fruitful cooperation between the College, the ESDC, and ANIMV in building a genuine European strategic culture.
Multumesc! Our sincere thanks go to our partners at SRI and ANIMV for making this valuable opportunity possible.
Doctoral Thesis: Member State Intelligence Support to EU Foreign Policymaking
The College's Permanent Secretariat extends its warmest congratulations to Dr. Daniel Neumann for successfully complete a doctoral degree at King’s College. His thesis, which addresses a subject close to our hearts, explores the conditions under which EU Member States support the EU Intelligence and Situation Centre (INTCEN) in the field of foreign policy.
This thesis asks under what conditions member states provide intelligence support to EU foreign policy making, that is, to the EU Intelligence and Situation Centre (INTCEN). INTCEN provides EU policy makers with strategic intelligence synthesised from member state contributions. The EU treaties stipulate that national security remains the sole responsibility of the member states (art. 4.2 TEU). This is widely interpreted to apply to intelligence, rendering any support to INTCEN voluntary. EU institutions have repeatedly encouraged member states to contribute. However, scepticism persists about the actual level of cooperation.
Dr. Daniel Neumann’s work investigates when member states provide support to INTCEN. It is situated in the academic literature about intelligence cooperation. It challenges the widely criticised but dominant neorealist approach and inductively develops an alternative model to explain intelligence support by drawing on insights from the European studies, the public administration, and the sociological literatures. The empirical research is based on the thematic analysis of 25 elite interviews triangulated with additional sources identified through desk research.
The thesis argues that as an analytic heuristic the provision of intelligence support to INTCEN can be understood as a top-down three-step process. First, at the political level, intelligence support is motivated by seeking to influence EU policymaking with intelligence by shaping the underlying situational understanding. Second, at the organisational level, quasi-autonomous intelligence services prioritise and allocate resources to the task of providing intelligence support based on their organisational identity, intelligence capacity, and bureaucratic capacity. Third, at the working level, intelligence analysts seconded to Brussels implement the intelligence support. By utilising their leeway and through ensuing social dynamics, these practitioners further impact the intelligence support of their services.
It then concludes that member states intelligence support is therefore shaped at all levels of government and determined by policy interests of policymakers, bureaucratic characteristics of intelligence services, as well as social dynamics of working-level practitioners. In developing the model, this thesis contributes to the academic literature on intelligence cooperation by advancing discussions on theorising multilateral intelligence cooperation in applying underutilised approaches. It further provides empirical insights into an underexplored intelligence cooperation forming part of EU foreign policy making.
Scholarly Contribution: The Social Ties That Bind
The Social Ties That Bind: Trust & Cooperation in EU Intelligence
Traditional views on intelligence cooperation emphasize transactional exchanges—quid pro quo deals between states. But is that the full story? In his PhD research, Dr. Pepijn Tuinier, senior policy advisor at the Dutch Ministry of Defence and professor at the Netherlands Defence Academy, challenges this notion. His study reveals that social relations and trust play a far greater role in intelligence cooperation than often assumed.
As an active member of the ICE Academic Network, Tuinier explores how shared identities and personal networks foster cooperation within the EU intelligence community. Through in-depth interviews with senior intelligence professionals, he demonstrates that, far from being a shadowy world of secrecy and rivalry, intelligence services—like other organizations—thrive on interaction, goodwill, and mutual understanding.
Italian Award “A Thesis for National Security”. Conclusion of the sixth edition
On December 10th, the sixth edition of “A Thesis for National Security” prize ceremony, promoted by the Security Intelligence Department (DIS) took place in Rome, at the headquarters of the Italian Intelligence System. The event was attended by Alfredo Mantovano, the Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers - Delegated Authority for the Security of the Republic, the Director General of DIS, Elisabetta Belloni and the Directors of the Italian Intelligence Agencies.
The award aims at bringing the younger generation closer to the world of intelligence, promoting and encouraging studies on topics related to national security.
It was launched in 2014 as part of the activities to promote security culture, and over time, the competition has witnessed an increasing relevant involvement of the university world, and has become an annual initiative: more than 100 recent graduates from more than 40 national universities have participated.
This initiative represents yet another sign of the Intelligence's openness to the outside world and the solidity of its relationship with civil society and the university environment.
In this edition (2023-2024), 7 participants were rewarded with a prize worth €2,500 each for the best master thesis, rated no less than 105/110, on the following topics, among others: geopolitics and international relations; threats to national security; law, doctrine and history of intelligence; economic and financial security.
These are the winners selected by an internal Committee:
- Samuele Bernardi, University of Pisa, From EU strategic autonomy to EU public order and security. Towards the framing of an “EU strategic security”?;
- Roberto Colle, University of Trento, Democratic control of the information and security services: Historical and comparative aspects of a current issue;
- Edoardo Liberati, Sapienza University of Roma, Efficient, Reusable and High Error Tolerant Fuzzy Extractor for Physical Unclonable Functions;
- Alessandro Lotto, University of Padova, BARON: Base-Station Authentication Through Core Network for Mobility Management in 5G Networks;
- Matteo Marras, University of Torino, The defence of national interests and Chinese investments in Italy;
- Martina Serao, University of Roma Tre, The strategic competition between European Union and Russian Federation: A Net assessment analysis;
- Maria Vittoria Zucca, University of Trento, Cybercrime in healthcare: history, diagnosis, and prognosis of an IT “disease.”.
The seventh edition of the Award is ongoing and you can find it on the Italian Intelligence website www.sicurezzanazionale.gov.it.
ANIMV and ESDC: Expert Course on Hybrid Threats in Bucharest
Week 43, the Romanian Intelligence Academy “Mihai Viteazul” (ANIMV) and the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) Doctoral School organised a very dynamic and high-quality Advanced Expert Course on Hybrid Threats in Bucharest.
This course, open to ESDC Doctoral School students and intelligence practitioners from both Member States and EU institutions, was of impressive quality!
The Permanent Secretariat of ICE, an associate network partner of ESDC, which had already been invited in 2022 to the ESDC Doctoral School annual conference, was more than happy to support this initiative, bridging academic and intelligence expertise on these complex types of threats!
After presenting the EU intelligence and security setup, including on Hybrid Threats (with a special focus on the EU Hybrid Fusion Cell created in 2016 within EU INTCEN), the ICE.PS Director emphasized the impact of the hybrid thematic on the EU intelligence structure, as well as EU-NATO cooperation. Following this, in a more concise manner, the possible role of ICE in building a stronger European strategic culture—a crucial feature when addressing hybrid threats—was explained.
The high quality of the participants made this advanced expert course exceptionally dynamic and interactive!
Congratulations to ANIMV and to the ESDC Doctoral School!
ICE / SIAC ANALYTICAL COURSE
In October 2024, in accordance to the SIAC-ICE Letter of Intention for cooperation signed in the Ecole Royale Militaire, the Intelligence College in Europe (ICE) academic network has delivered a joint Analytical course to the SIAC Analysts.
This second edition is participating to the joint civilian-military culture of EUMS.INT and EU INTCEN Analysts, regrouped in the Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity.
A good example of what an european intelligence culture could mean practically !
The Spanish Intelligence Academy from CNI, the Romanian Intelligence Academy (ANIMV) from SRI and the multinational Osint Center of Excellence of Zagreb have united their forces to deliver this crosscutting European course.
FIRST ICE ACADEMIC NETWORK OUTREACH ACTION IN BRUSSELS - Disinformation and National Security
On the 13th of May, the ICE Academic network has conducted its first ever outreach action in order to promote the work of four of its academics, who have just issued the “Routledge Handbook of Disinformation and National Security”.
The event, which has taken place within the Brussels headquarters of IRSEM (Institut de recherche stratégique de l'École militaire) Europe, the European branch of the French MoD Think Tank, has taken place in two moments:
- A high level roundtable on the theme “Disinformation and FIMI”, where one representative of NATO Public Diplomacy Division, of the French Service VIGINUM and of a Member State service have discussed on the topic before interacting under Chatham rules with a large, but selected audience of EU actors on Disinformation, FIMI and Security,
- a Spotlight event, with the three ICE co-editors of the Routledge Handbook on Disinformation and National Security,
Dr Ruben Arcos, Dr Irena Chiru & Dr Cristina Ivan, interacting mainly with European think-tankers.
These side-by-side events were open only under invitations and were targeting only known experts of the domain. This exclusive audience has been particularly active & reactive during the roundtable, which had to be extended from the planned one hour and a half to nearly two hours. The interest of the exchanges was such that a certain number of the first attendees have decided to stay to have the chance to interact with the scientific contributors of the first Routledge comprehensive scientific publication on the Disinformation topic.
This very first ICE Academic network action has allowed ICE to highlight and promote in Brussels the joint research effort of some of its Academics and to contribute to a common strategic culture in the Intelligence & Security domain.
This event, conducted just before the Second ICE Academic Conference, which will take place soon in Spain, will pave the way for another ICE academic event, end of this year, to mark the special edition of the International Journal for Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence (IJICI) on the Common European Strategic Intelligence culture.
The Intelligence College in Europe, which is celebrating this year its fifth anniversary, is proud, on top of its core training mission (making itself a sort of “Intel Erasmus”) and its security awareness actions, to be able to promote the joint efforts of the ICE Academics.
First Academic Conference in Bucharest in May 2023
The first Academic Conference of the Intelligence College in Europe (ICE), organized by the Romanian Presidency, took place on May 4th, 2023, in Bucharest. The event marked the 30th anniversary of the ‘Mihai Viteazul’ Romanian Intelligence Academy (ANIMV) and highlights its longstanding commitment to intelligence training and education in Romania. Initiated by the Italian Presidency in 2022, the conference aimed to strengthen cooperation between the College’s Academic Network and the broader academic community. Due to logistical considerations, the conference was held in a hybrid format, with representatives from 10 member countries attending in person.
The opening session included introductions of network members and academic institutions, followed by a keynote address from the Director of the Permanent Secretariat, who underscored the importance of collaborative efforts in developing ICE initiatives, the need for specialized clusters of expertise, and potential areas for future educational and research endeavors.
A panel discussion on the future of intelligence education and research featured contributions from academics representing different countries that shared insights on key topics in the field. A subsequent roundtable focused on existing outreach initiatives at the national level and explored opportunities for further collaboration and development of new projects.
The next academic conference will continue to build on these foundations and will further enhance collaboration and innovation in intelligence education and research.
