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 !

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.

🔗 Download the full summary here.

Authored by:

U. Borghoff, L. Berger, & F. Fischer, Connections QJ 23, no. 1 (2024): Preview
https://doi.org/10.11610/Connections.23.1.03

Abstract:

The actors within the so-called "intelligence community" play a central role in fulfilling Europe's security commitments by providing political and military decision-makers with critical analyses and information. The Intelligence College in Europe (ICE) is the first entity to offer both professional intelligence training and postgraduate-level academic education in intelligence and security studies for intelligence officers on a pan-European scale. In developing its postgraduate offerings, ICE has drawn upon the experience of Germany's Master of Intelligence and Security Studies (MISS), a collaborative effort between the University of the Bundeswehr Munich and the Department of Intelligence at the Federal University of Administrative Sciences in Berlin. As a main contribution of this article, the counterterrorism module (adapted from the MISS) is examined in detail as a case study of how postgraduate modules can be tailored to meet the needs of a pan-European audience of intelligence professionals.

See also:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384159933_The_Intelligence_College_in_Europe_An_Effort_to_Create_a_European_Intelligence_Communit

The project on « European Youth Perceptions of National Intelligence Services » is the first research project to be carried out collectively, with the participation of universities from the ICE´s Academic Network. The objective of the project is to carry out a study on the opinion that young Europeans have about their Intelligence and Security Services, to measure the extent to which European youth Trust Intelligence services.

Professor Antonio Diaz (University of Cadiz), who led a similar project at the national level in 2018 en Spain, coordinates this project trying to extrapolate this study to European level. All members are invited to participate in the project, through the universities of the academic network or other universities in their countries specialized in the area of Intelligence knowledge. Quotas will be established for the number of interviews per country, gender, and age range, including that the national sample is representative of the country's population. If necessary, weights (adjustments) will be applied by gender and age according to the distribution of the adult population per country (INE, Eurostat).

There are several items cover, sociodemographic items, missions of intelligence agencies, power of intelligence agencies, trust and control. Sample population is made up of young Europeans aged 16-30 years. The potential coutries which participate, cover different types of political regimes, political cultures and geographical zones. Spain –University of Cádiz- will be the leading partner. The method used is online survey targeting adults.

The survey is conducted over a period of 15 days starting from the date the survey company receives the questionnaires. The survey will consist of 30 items, with an estimated completion time of 8-9 minutes. Due to the institutional structure varying from country to country, decisions are required on which specific agencies should be the focus of the survey.

This project is being developed during 2024 and the results are expected to be available next November.

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.

Do you want to know the work of an intelligence officer on strategic issues?

In this case, we invite you to watch this interview of the Intelligence and Security Senior Adviser of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), Gerhard Conrad. A former BND officer and high level hostage negotiator in the Middle East, he led the EU Intelligence Centre (UE INTCEN) from 2016 to 2020, before retiring and moving towards various advising and teaching positions. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the King's College London. Additionally, he authored an interesting book in German titled: “Keine Lizenz zum Töten” (No Licence to Kill), at the Econ Publish House in 2022.

You will find the video here.

On 21 and 22 February 2022 in Paris, the French Intelligence Community organised with the College a thematic seminar on intelligence and space. Space involves much more than military and security issues. Its mastering involves daily applications ranging from communications, connectivity and synchronisation, to geolocation and meteorology. These applications are of daily use and their resilience is strategic. Before an audience made up of members of the Intelligence College in Europe, speakers from research, institutions, industry and services elaborated on the challenges that space represents now. A summary of this seminar is available hereunder.

In September 2020, the Intelligence College in Europe invited professors from three member countries (Italy, Romania and Finland) to present their vision on European security challenges in the 21^st century. They gave their input on the impact of technology on national security, propaganda and disinformation, and hybrid warfare.

The webinar showed Members share, for the most part, similar views over these three topics, and the event paved the way for further exchanges within the College.

Here is the downloadable summary of our conclusions over this webinar.

The International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence publishes its first special theme issue in its 35-year history (available here). This issue, devoted to “Europe and intelligence”, includes contributions to the first thematic seminar organized by the College of Intelligence in Europe in Berlin in autumn 2019.

The authors express themselves in a personal capacity. They do not represent the position of the Intelligence College in Europe or the intelligence communities.