Study Group on Intelligence

The next meeting of the SGI includes two exciting panels, and will be held in Bush House, King's College London. This building is accessible via Aldwych, at the southern end of Kingsway. The nearest tubes are Temple, Embankment, and Holborn. The charge for this session is £10 reflecting the cost of a sandwich lunch.

10.00 - Coffee

10.30 - Panel: Cold War Diplomacy and Intelligence in the Global South

'Soviet and Eastern European Intelligence in Africa: the Case of Czechoslovak Relations with Amilcar Cabral' Dr Natasha Telepneva (University of Strathclyde)

'Soviet Disinformation in Cold War India: The ‘Freeman Telegram’ and the KGB' Dr Paul McGarr (University of Nottingham)

'Reflections of a Diplomat: Cold War Angola and Nicaragua' Tim Willasey-Wilsey (KCL and former FCO)

Chair: Dr Daniela Richterova (Brunel University London)

This panel will examine Soviet and Eastern European engagement in the Global South during the Cold War. By zooming in on key Cold War hotspots, it will analyse Moscow’s strategic objectives and Western reactions to these efforts. Simultaneously, it will explore the role diplomats and intelligence officers played in pursing these goals. Finally, it will discuss the agency of Global South states and leaders in an era of intense ideological struggle over the Global South.

12.15 - Lunch

13.00 - Panel: US and UK Experience with Government Contractors – a Mixed Legacy?

'Outsourcing US Intelligence: Contractors and Government Accountability' Dr Damien van Puyvelde (University of Glasgow)

' "This venture might be privatised" - Outsourcing British Counter-Insurgency during the Late Cold War Period' Phil Miller (Author and investigative journalist)

Chair: Prof. Richard J. Aldrich (University of Warwick)

This panel will examine the intricacies associated with governments outsourcing their intelligence and counter-insurgency functions to private entities. Focusing on the US and the UK as case studies, it will interrogate the notion of whether private contractors have been ‘out of control’ and what this all means for the future of outsourcing key security and intelligence government functions and accountability within a liberal democracy.

The event concludes at 14.30.