The Permanent Secretariat of the Intelligence College in Europe welcomes the start of the German Presidency of the Intelligence College in Europe and its theme, “Intelligence and Science”. Please find here the Presidency letter from Philipp Wolff, Coordinator of the Federal Intelligence Services and Head of Directorate-General 7 at the Federal Chancellery.

The Permanent Secretariat of the Intelligence College in Europe has been contributing to and supporting the activities of the Intelligence Chair at Sciences Po Aix for the past three years. During this time, it has shared with certificate and master’s students insights into the workings of European and EU intelligence, while also presenting the missions of the College in support of a strategic European intelligence culture.

This year, the Intelligence College in Europe was delighted to take part in the launch of the new academic year of the Sciences Po Aix Intelligence Chair!

A warm thank you goes to the new Director of Sciences Po Aix, Dr. Alissia Lefebure, to General Cholley, and to Dr. Walter Bruyère-Ostells of the Intelligence Chair, with whom fruitful discussions were held.

Since this year, the College is proud to count the very dynamic Sciences Po Aix Intelligence Chair as part of its European academic network, alongside 43 other universities and institutions (so far). Sciences Po Aix is one of the four French institutions in this European network. We hope that some of the excellent Sciences Po Aix students will take part in the College’s European competition, or that researchers will respond to the academic call for papers and join the 3rd Academic Conference, which will take place in June 2026 in Germany!

From 9 to 11 September 2025, the Joint Annual Conference of the International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE) Global and its European Chapter (IAFIE-EC) was hosted at King Juan Carlos University (URJC) in Madrid-Aranjuez.

As in Copenhagen (2023) and Malta (2024), the Intelligence College in Europe (IntelCollege) was once again actively present, drawing on its exceptional Academic Network to showcase the emerging common European intelligence culture. IntelCollege contributed to this renowned intelligence conference on three occasions:

• 9 September – IntelCollege facilitated the participation of the EU SATCEN Director, who delivered one of the opening keynote speeches, illustrating European cooperation in the fields of GEOINT and IMINT.
• 10 September – The IntelCollege Academic Network organised the first European Roundtable on the Future of Intelligence Training in Europe. Six senior representatives from five of its 14 Intelligence Education and Training Academies and Centres (Croatia, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Romania) presented their national perspectives, highlighting their engagement with academia and offering IAFIE members a unique insight into their activities.
• 11 September – The Academic Network hosted a spotlight session dedicated to a Lessons Learned exercise on the publication of the Common European Intelligence Culture special edition of the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence (IJICI, Routledge).

These activities demonstrated the dynamic development of the IntelCollege Academic Network, which is now preparing to launch an Academic Award, establish working groups, publish new research, and host its own ambitious Academic Conference in Munich in 2026.

The Roundtable on intelligence training marked a true “first”: bringing together senior European managers of intelligence training facilities, who traditionally meet bilaterally. The event revealed a clear potential for more regular exchanges among intelligence schools. Members of the Academic Network began discussions on how training institutions facing similar challenges could share lessons learned, how a joint research agenda might foster a common European intelligence culture, and how academic insights could be further integrated into training curricula.

As in Copenhagen and Malta, IAFIE once again provided a unique forum where academics and practitioner-scholars from Europe, the Americas, and beyond could meet, exchange ideas, and foster dialogue in a constructive and collegial atmosphere.

IntelCollege warmly thanks IAFIE Chairwoman Dr. Kathy Pherson, IAFIE European Chapter President Dr. Irena Chiru, and Dr. Rubén Arcos (URJC) for organising such a well-structured and inspiring conference.

👉 For more information on the IntelCollege Academic Award and the Call for Papers, please click here

The Intelligence College in Europe has officially become an associate member of ACADEM (Académie de Défense de l’Ecole Militaire - Defence Academy of the Military School), formalised by a signing between Army Corps General Hervé de Courrèges, Director of IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale), and Mr François Fischer, Director of the College.

This signing took place at the conclusion of a morning full of exchanges: following a roundtable on French Intelligence Studies with the participation of Messrs Philippe Baumard and Floran Vadillo, young doctoral candidates had the opportunity to present their work during a session chaired by Dr Clément Renault.

The Intelligence College in Europe (ICE), an active member of the Military School’s ecosystem, is thus honoured to formally join the ACADEM network. The College already maintains excellent working relationships with four very active members of ACADEM, in addition to ACADRE (Académie du Renseignement), IHEDN, IHEMI (Institut des Hautes Etudes du Ministère de l’Intérieur), and IRSEM (Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l’Ecole Militaire - IRSEM Paris and IRSEM Europe), and will continue its active involvement in PDSF 2026, as it did in 2024 and 2025.

We would like to extend our special thanks to General de Courrèges, Nicolas Bronard, the entire ACADEM team, as well as all the guests who contributed to a morning that was both rich and engaging!

Our thanks also go to Dr Philippe Baumard and Floran Vadillo for their active participation in the first roundtable, to Dr Sébastien-Yves Laurent who presented and signed his latest book, winner of ACADRE’s 2024 grand prize, and to the young researchers of the IRSEM roundtable chaired by Dr Clément Renault.

https://youtu.be/dU7Ai7DDL0g

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 !

On the 22nd of January 2025, the newly appointed Head of the EU Civilian Intelligence Center (EU INTCEN) inaugurated this year’s joint IFRI and Intelligence College in Europe “Intelligence Cycle.”

The former Director-General of the Croatian Intelligence Service, Mr. Daniel Markic, discussed the opportunities and challenges “Towards a European Intelligence Community” in front of the regular audience of the IFRI Brown Bag Seminar.

His clear, strategic, and forward-looking speech, delivered in remarkably fluent French, was followed by precise questions from an engaged audience.

ICE Permanent Secretariat extends its gratitude to the EU INTCEN Director, who emphasized the importance of the existing EU intelligence and security framework, the demands placed on EU institutions, and the need to strengthen the intelligence and security culture in Brussels with the support of the Intelligence College in Europe.

For context, on the 23rd of October 2024, ICE and the EU’s strategic intelligence directors (both civilian, Mr. Markic, and military, General BAEV), united within the Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity (SIAC), signed an official cooperation agreement.

Strengthening European Security and Intelligence Cooperation

On October 24, 2024, the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) and the Intelligence College in Europe (ICE) held an outreach event at the École Royale Militaire in Brussels, with the participation of key EU officials, national Points of Contact (POCs) from ICE member states, selected Intelligence Services officials and influential think tankers. The event provided a platform for senior officials and intelligence leaders to discuss the evolving role of intelligence in the European Union and focused on the strategic value of intelligence in decision-making as well as the collaborative frameworks within the EU.

The day began with welcome addresses by Mr. Arturo Relanzón, CNI Secretary General, and Mr. François Fischer, ICE Permanent Secretariat Director. Both of them have stressed the relevance and the timeliness of such a conference, the first made in Brussels on Intelligence services and the European Union institutions, just at the time where the future of SIAC (1), with a view on “Strengthening SIAC”, and the Niniisto report were to be discussed (2).

The conference itself was organised mainly around three roundtables moderated by former Nato ASG Intelligence Freytag von Loringhoven, by ICE.PS Director and by SG CNI, high-level roundtables followed by a strategic speech from the EEAS Secretary General :  

The first morning roundtable has examined the functional development of EU intelligence, from SITCEN to INTCEN and the Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity (SIAC) before focusing on the EU needs and the ways to ensure the timely redistribution of intelligence to all the relevant EU institutions, and not only EEAS or the PSC. The two directors of SIAC, Mr Daniel Markic and General Baev, have also insisted, in a time when partnership with like-minded countries is growing massively, be it in Nato or in bilateral format, on the need to maintain SIAC as the single point of entry for strategic intelligence. 

The second roundtable has allowed three major intelligence EU customers, Mr Bartjan Wegter, the EU CT Coordinator, Mr Ilkka Salmi, DDG Commission in charge of the Security, and Mr Francisco Fontan, the HRVP Head of Cabinet, to express their needs and comments.

In these two roundtables was emphasised the importance of intelligence for EU policy-makers. Panellists offered their perspectives on trust-building among member states and between Member states and the institutions. Discussions on the need to adapt to the policy rh ythm, to ensure relevance and timeliness has led to some new ideas, especially on the interest to brief directly high ranking EU decision-makers as SIAC has begun to do.

The afternoon session has allowed the General Director of Lithuania and the Deputies of DGs from Belgium and France to highlight the complementarity of internal, external, and military intelligence services, a strong point of the SIAC concept.

Mr. Stefano Sannino, Secretary-General of the EEAS, has then given the last lecture of this very dense conference with a forward-looking perspective on EU security, insisting on the need to adapt to the new EU “ecosystem”, i.e. the new EU security paradigm in terms of military & security defence, in terms of economic security and the need of “all of society” approach to tackle all the threats. Inter alia, he thanks the Member States services for their inputs, through the EU Threat assesments, to the strategic Compass.

This very timely ICE outreach event underscored the EU’s commitment to fostering a more unified intelligence community through trust and collaboration. Very important also, the need for the intelligence & security services to be more heard in Brussels has been highlighted by various EU actors.

In a notable prelude on October 23, ICE and SIAC signed a letter of intent to enhance cooperation, therefore reaffirming their dedication to shared training and operational support and highlighting the unity of the intelligence community in Brussels.

ICE.PS thanks here the Spanish Presidency but also our Belgian friends for all their mobilisation to ensure the full success of this first conference in Brussels on this topic; a conference which was built on the experience gained on 31st of May and 1st of June 2023 during a first Ecole Royale Militaire conference organised by the VSSE and on 19-20 of September 2023 during the conference organised in Madrid with the full support of Ortega y Gasset foundation.  

(1) The civ/mil Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity, regrouping the forces of the civilian EU INTCEN and the military EUMS.INT.

(2) Despite some first leaks in the press the days before, the report drafted by the former Finn President was released 5 days after the Conference.

Access the closing remarks by Mr. Arturo Relanzón, Secretary General of the CNI, here!

Already invited in March this year to a very interesting and insightful Intelligence
Symposium co-organised by the Federal Chancellery and Ministry of Interior, The Permanent Secretariat of ICE was again invited to the Intelligence Conference organised by Behörden Spiegel on the 17th and 18th of October, titled “Die deutschen Dienste in der Zeitenwende.”

A few days after the interviews in the German Parliament of the three heads of the German Federal Intelligence Services (BND, BFV & BAMAD), this high-level conference offered an occasion to reflect on the impact of the epochal shift (“Zeitenwende” (1)) we are experiencing on the Services.

The Permanent Secretariat of ICE was invited to participate in this conference and contributed to the debate alongside, among others, Prof. Jan-Hendrik Dietrich, discussing the necessary adaptations in intelligence culture, intelligence & security awareness, and intelligence training.

The ICE representatives had the pleasure of reconnecting with some old friends, both within the German Community and with the panelists of the roundtable on the role of intelligence in EU and NATO decision-making processes!

Special thanks again to one of the organisers and a moderator, Dr. Gerhard Conrad, currently Intelligence & Security advisor at MSC!

(1) Referring to the Bundestag speech by Chancellor Olaf Scholz on 27 February 2022, recognizing the historical turning point marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

To read about the previous symposium, click here.

From the 9th to the 12th of September, the academics of the International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE) – European Chapter held their annual conference in Malta, which follows the Copenhagen conference (for more details, click here). Excellently organized by our colleagues at the University of Malta—special thanks to Mr. Joe Cannataci and Ms. Aitana Radu—it was a very impressive, interactive, and fruitful event.

The Intelligence College in Europe (ICE) participated actively in all the sessions and also organized, on the 12th of September, a special ICE Spotlight event (see photos) with the Director and five academic members or associates of the ICE Academic Network.

It was an excellent occasion to present the College, its outreach activities, and its publication efforts, and to foster interactions with the IAFIE members. Thanks to Professors Irena Chiru, Cristina Ivan, Iztok Prezelj, Artur Gruszczak, and Ruben Arcos, who presented the results of their research!

Most of their results will be accessible soon in scientific articles to be published in the next Special Edition on the European Intelligence Culture of the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence (IJICI).

ICE is happy to announce that the next IAFIE Annual Conference has been announced by one of its most active academic network members, Dr. Ruben Arcos from Rey Juan Carlos University; it will take place in Madrid-Aranjuez. It will probably be an occasion to go one step further in the fruitful exchanges between the academics of IAFIE and ICE.

Read the director's Address
at the IAFIE Spotlight Event in Malta