The Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), together with the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), have designed the summer course “INTELLIGENCE SERVICES AND SOCIETY. SECRECY IN THE RULE OF LAW”, in which high-level specialists and representatives of the Intelligence Services themselves will participate. 

The UCM summer courses are an international reference for academics and the public in general, as a forum for intellectual exchange. They aim to be a space of transversal thinking that responds to the challenges that society faces, within the maximum academic rigor and internationalization.

The course will take place on July 15^th and 16^th, 2024, in a face-to-face format, in the city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (56 km from city centre Madrid). Although it is a national level event, a roundtable dedicated to the vision from Europe will be included during the session on Day 15^th July 16 hrs. This session will be conducted in English and will be available online to the ICE members and partners.

Participants of the round table:

AUSTRIA: Sascha BOSEZKY, Director Austrian Strategic Intelligence Agency

GERMANY: Carsten MAAS, Deputy Director General Department 7, Federal Intelligence Service; Coordination of Federal Intelligence Services.

INTCEN UE: José MORGADO, Director INTCEN EEAS

 ICE: Francoise FISCHER, Director PS ICE

SPAIN: Arturo RELENZÓN , Secretary General CNI

On 2^nd April 2024, the Director of National Intelligence of Sweden, Dag Hartelius, gave a presentation in the IFRI, as part of the European Intelligence cycle supported by the Intelligence College in Europe. The topic of the conference was “Hybrid Threats –Tasks and Challenges for the Intelligence Community”.

Ambassador Dag Hartelius, who came to Paris on the 5^th March 2019 for the launch of the Intelligence College in Europe, was happy to come back to Paris, for its fifth anniversary, and to participate to this IFRI / ICE cycle. He was the fourth participant of this outreach cycle after Intelligence High representatives from France, Italy and Spain.

Faced with a new type of threat, the hybrid threat, the international community has to respond with new tools that, necessarily, cannot be only military, but will have to combine other variables.

It is not that hybrid threats or elements of hybrid threat did not exist before, think about some Disinformation campaigns during the Cold War, but it was different both in terms of scope and modus. The information revolution and the information overload have given plenty of possibilities in terms of asymmetric and opportunistic attacks against our democratic societies.

Already in EU and NATO, some new strategies and some new tools, such as the Centres of excellence of Riga (on Disinformation), of Tallinn (on Cyber) and of Helsinki (on Hybrid threats), have been developed. But, faced with such wide, opportunistic and asymmetric attacks, we need a new mind set with an “all-the-government” approach.

More specifically, with regard to Intelligence, the evolution has been twofold:

• State services have no more the monopoly of reliable and actionable information. Other sources of information (be it in OSINT or in IMINT) are equally valid, complementary and necessary to understand the current threat situation. We must therefore count on multiple sources that do not necessarily have to come from Intelligence as such.
• We have seen, during the Ukrainian war, the repetitive use of intelligence for STRATCOM purpose. Intelligence, in this regard, is becoming a new tool.

Today we are in a comprehensive ecosystem that requires a cross-cutting, horizontal and holistic vision capable of providing different responses to different threats. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown that there is a long way to go in being better prepared to anticipate future threats.

From March 21^st  to 22^nd, the 5th Law & Intelligence Services Symposium has taken place in Berlin, organized jointly by the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of the Interior with the focus, this year, “Intelligence services and armed conflicts”.

Superbly organized, this Symposium brought together academic specialists in Law and researchers in Intelligence Studies with members of the association of former executives of the German services (for more details, see www.gknd.de), current leaders of the main services, Members of the Parliament (also  members of the control commissions), senior executives from the Ministry of Defense, the Interior and the National Coordination and some specialized journalists. It made it possible to address various subjects linked to conflict law and to develop in detail the issues linked to hybrid threats.

Before the closing speech by the National Intelligence Coordinator, an important discussion was held in the active presence, inter alia, of the President of the BND, the President of the G10 Parliamentary Control Commission, the President of BaMAD, the Vice-President of the BFV (1). In fact placed under the long shadow of the war in Ukraine and the famous declaration of February 27, 2024 made by Chancellor Scholz on the strategic shift (“Der 24.Februar 2022 markiert eine Zeitenwende in der Geschichte unseres Kontinents.”), this symposium made it possible to discuss how this shift impacted or should impact the German Services community.

The Permanent Secretariat of the Intelligence College in Europe, which works closely with Germany, one of its founding members and one of its most permanent supporters, was present there.

(1) – Respectively Civil and Military Foreign Intelligence Service, Military Protection and Counter-Espionage Service and (Federal) Internal Security Service.

Le 7 février 2024, le secrétaire général du Centre national de renseignement (CNI) d'Espagne, le sous-secrétaire Arturo Relanzón, a donné une conférence à l'IFRI, dans le cadre du cycle européen de renseignement soutenu par le Collège européen du renseignement, présidé par L’Espagne en 2024. Le thème de la conférence était « Instabilité au Sahel, impact sur la sécurité de l’Europe ».

 Le directeur de l'IFRI, Thomas Gomart, a accueilli et présidé l'événement et le directeur adjoint de l'IFRI, Marc Hecker, ainsi que la directrice internationale de l'Agence française de presse (AFP), Daphné Benoit, y ont participé.

L'instabilité au Sahel est déterminée par les conditions politiques, sociales et économiques de la région. Dans certains cas, ces conditions peuvent constituer un terrain fertile pour la radicalisation (avec pour conséquence un impact sur la menace terroriste) et pour une migration clandestine massive. L’Europe devrait améliorer son travail et sa collaboration dans la région, en approfondissant la connaissance mutuelle.

Les menaces venant du Sahel vers l’Europe ne sont pas indépendantes et les combattre individuellement n’est peut-être pas la meilleure option. L’Europe devrait adopter une approche globale pour faire face à « tout, partout, d’un seul coup ». De la même manière, l'action des pays doit s'inscrire dans le cadre de l'action européenne commune.

M. Arturo Relanzón était le troisième participant à ce cycle de l'IFRI après les coordonnateurs du renseignement français et italien.

​

On 7 February 2024, the Secretary General of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) of Spain, Undersecretary Mr Arturo Relanzón, gave a conference in the IFRI, as part of the European Intelligence cycle supported by the Intelligence College in Europe, which is chaired by Spain in 2024. The topic of the conference was “Instability in the Sahel, impact on the Security of Europe”.

The Director of the IFRI, Thomas Gomart, hosted and chaired the event and the Deputy Director of the IFRI, Marc Hecker, and the Head of International of the French Press Agency (AFP), Daphné Benoit participated in it.

The instability in the Sahel is determined by the political, social and economic conditions in the region. In some cases, those conditions may be fertile ground for radicalisation (with the consequent impact on the terrorist threat) and for massive illegal migration. Europe should improve its work and collaboration in the region, deepening on mutual knowledge.

The threats coming from the Sahel to Europe are not independent and tackling them individually may not be the best option. Europe should take a holistic approach to face “everything, everywhere, all at once”. In the same way, the action of countries should be framed in the context of the joint European action.

Mr. Arturo Relanzón was the third participant of this IFRI cycle after the French and the Italian Intelligence Coordinators.

The Romanian Presidency of the Intelligence College in Europe starts on February 1st, 2023. With this occasion, professor Adrian Ivan, PhD. the Rector of “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy, introduces Romania’s projects and ambitions for the College.

In June this year, Mrs. Yasmine Gouédard was elected by the College members to be the first head of the ICE’s Permanent Secretariat. On 14^th September, she formally took up her position of the coordination structure. Since, she has been actively working on consolidating links between members. Mrs. Gouédard is in close contact with the stakeholders of the College, and in constant association with the Presidency and Troika board. Her first trip was to Zagreb, as Croatia assumes since February 2020 ICE’s rotating presidency for a year.

Organised at BND headquarters by the German intelligence community, the first College seminar enabled exchanges between more than 80 members of European intelligence services, representatives of European institutions, and academics on the topics of intelligence in Europe and relationship with the EU, establishing an essential dialogue, which respects national sovereignty in this regal domain.