On December 10^th, 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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

SIRP has organized a course on Narcotrafficking: A European perspective, which delved in different aspects of this phenomenon. We kickstarted our quest by actively shifting our focus to Mapping the Network, aiming at pinpointing and comprehending the lifelines of this illicit trade—the production zones, transit routes, and distribution hubs. Our analysis exposed Europe's dual role as a market and a critical nexus in this global trafficking dilemma. Secondly, we scrutinized the Socio-Economic Implications, unravelling how narcotrafficking weaves into the socio-economic fabric of our nations, affecting economies, altering employment landscapes, and testing the resilience of our societies.

On September 19 and 20, 2023, the Seminar on Intelligence and Decision Making, organized by the Intelligence College in Europe (ICE) and the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) of Spain, took place at the José Ortega y Gasset-Gregorio Marañón Foundation (FOM) in Madrid. The seminar was inaugurated by the Secretary of State Director of the CNI, Esperanza Casteleiro, and had the participation of the Secretary General of the CNI himself, Arturo Relanzón, and that of different European Intelligence Services, managers of the public and private sector, heads of office and senior officials of several European security institutions and academics from different countries. The participation of prestigious academic staff and private companies favored the plurality of points of view and enriched the dialogue, achieving a much broader and more valuable vision of the needs of Intelligence consumers. The level of representation of some of the highest EU clients of Intelligence has helped bringing in interesting feedbacks and points of view, in many cases different from the national points of view. To be noted, also, the active and dynamic presence of both EU SATCEN and EU INTCEN’s directors, who have helped the attendees to better understand the relations between national and European decision-makers on one side and the degree of intelligence support given to the EU institutions on the other side.

From October 2nd to October 6th the postgraduate course ‘Intelligence and the Military’ took place in The Hague, the Netherlands. This event was hosted by the Faculty of Military Sciences of the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA) and supported by the Dutch Defence Intelligence and Security Service under the framework of the Intelligence College in Europe (ICE). Around 30 participants from 15 countries attended, coming from the full range of ICE member intelligence organizations.

On 31st of May and 1st of June 2023, the Belgian Security (VSSE) and CUTA, with the support of the Royal Military Academy and the Institute Egmont, organised a Thematic Seminar on “How to implement strategic issues in the intelligence work?” which attracted a very large affluence, gathering 80 participants from 23 countries and international organisations. Due to the high interest in the subject, the informal atmosphere, and its diversified setup, bringing together intelligence practitioners, academics, think tankers, and decision-makers (recipients of strategic intelligence or people involved in the prioritisation), the Thematic Seminar was both intensive and intense. During this seminar, participants were given the opportunity to ask questions and address issues related to their daily work, as well as problematics most important to them, making it particularly interactive. This first ever ICE seminar in Brussels shows also all the interest of such events, giving the opportunity to make selected EU outreach actions and to flag the high degree of cooperation within our European intelligence and security community.

The Czech Security information service (BIS) hosted a thematic seminar in Prague on the topic of Russian threat – the 10-year perspective. The seminar took place on May 23 – May 25, 2023. The two-day seminar was divided into four blocks: first one focused on Russia as a security threat for Central Europe and Western countries in general in 10 years, the second on the future of Russian relations with the rest of the world, namely China and African countries. The third dealt with the issue of energy and its use as a Russian weapon (again with the 10-year perspective). The last block consisted of several short presentations of Czech security services and other state institutions on the main seminar topic.