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On October 7, Hamas launched a significant and well-coordinated attack on Israel, surprising its defenses. Considered the ‘most serious attack in a generation’, the offensive exposed multiple intelligence failures on the Israeli side, revealing both Hamas’ effective planning and considerable weaknesses in Israeli security structures.
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by Kevin Riehle Who was the first Soviet intelligence penetration of the CIA? Kim Philby was the SIS liaison to the U.S. Intelligence Community during his tour in Washington from 1949 to 1951. However, although he had better access to the U.S. intelligence than most foreigners, he never had employee access. Karl Koecher, whom the…
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The Israeli-Iran war remains in an extremely dangerous phase. Deterrence has collapsed. Although the Israelis have said they expect a two-week campaign, there is no obvious end in sight. Now, Iran’s leadership is openly signalling a formal break with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The situation is volatile and could still get worse. This is largely…
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In November 1983 NATO held a command post exercise which rehearsed new procedures for a nuclear first strike on the Soviet Union by NATO, which was held following a very tense year in US-Soviet relations and used a new cryptographic system. The 1988 publication of The Storm Birds, wherein Gordon Brook-Shepherd interviewed Gordievsky, Able Archer…
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Professor Philip H J Davies Spies and their Shibboleths Every profession has its terms of art that have what appears – at least to outsiders to outsiders – a disproportionate significance to its practitioners. Intelligence has many of these. They serve simultaneously as shibboleths and what might be called professional virtue signalling as well as…
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Dr Kevin Riehle With the death of Oleg Gordievsky, it is appropriate to look back to recap what the West learned about the KGB and the Soviet Union from his revelations. His eleven years as an UK Secret Intelligence Service penetration of the KGB, followed by years of debriefings as a defector yielded huge amounts…
Intelligence Studies Review
Blog of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies (BCISS)
Intelligence Studies Review 