Intelligence Studies Review

Blog of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies (BCISS)

  • Call for Papers: “Knock in the Night” —Intelligence, Security and Special Services in Authoritarian States 

    Date: 26-27 June 2024   Location: Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK  Deadline for Proposals: 8 January 2024  The Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies (BCISS) is calling for papers about the activities, role and functioning of intelligence and security organisations in autocratic regimes. We are also interested in the causes, conditions and difficulties that national…

  • How Do We Define Intelligence Failure?: Hamas October 2023 Attack on Israel

    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.

  • Supply Chains and Sabotage

    Dr. Neveen Abdalla In recent weeks, colleagues in the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies have noticed a recurrent, troubling theme in the news: fires or explosions have been (ahem) “accidentally” breaking out at defence-related factories in Western countries. Over a short period, these seemingly sporadic incidents have appeared to increase in frequency, occurring…

  • Russia Is Already at War with NATO, Whether NATO Believes it or Not

    Dr Kevin Riehle Since the beginning of 2024, NATO military leaders have stated in multiple forums that NATO countries need to prepare for future war with Russia. Those statements have created anxiety and met political and societal resistance. Populations and politicians in NATO countries are loath to accept the need to fight Russia in an…

  • Back in Black: the Return of Sabotage As A Challenge for Western Counterintelligence

    Professor Philip H. J. Davies On 10 June, 1978 a 31-year-old Red Army captain defected to the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, aka ‘MI6’) in Geneva. Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun was an officer in the GRU (Glavnoye Upravlenoye Razvedivatelnie), Russian defence intelligence, who would later write a succession of nominally factual books as well as fiction…

  • Did Vladimir Putin Kill Aleksei Navalny?

    By Dr. Kevin Riehle The predominant theme in the West since Aleksei Navalny’s death on 16 February 2024 is that Vladimir Putin killed him. His wife, who is understandably grieved and angry, has led that narrative. But is it possible that there is an alternative analysis? Maybe by persisting in that theme, the West is…

  • The Strange Case of the Bulgarian Not-Quite-Illegals

    Dr Kevin Riehle and Professor Philip H J Davies In September 2023, five Bulgarians—Orlin Rusev, Vanya Gaberova, Ivan Stoyanov, and Bizer Dzhambazov and Katrin Ivanova as a couple—appeared in a British court charged with ‘conspiring to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy’, in other words, espionage. Some have assessed…