Intelligence Studies Review

Welcome to Intelligence Studies Review, the official blog of the Brunel University Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies (BCISS).  BCISS was the first officially established research centre in intelligence studies, founded twenty years ago this coming November.  Our four-fold mandate was to be a centre of excellence in the study of intelligence from a policy and social science perspective in the first instance and to provide postgraduate education and training in that work; to engage in public information and education on intelligence affairs; and to provide expert advice and consultancy in the field.   

In 2003 we had to hit the ground running in a world shaped by the close succession of intelligence furores arising from 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq.  Over the last years there has been a continuous drumbeat of intelligence issues that have fed into the very public realms of politics, security and strategy and BCISS has been actively involved in scholarly understanding, public information and professional development throughout. 

Intelligence Studies Review will be a forum for discussion, debate and deliberation on intelligence affairs because, as recent events have shown, that drumbeat is unlikely to subside.  Here you will find commentary and analysis on recent and current events and developments, as well as discussion of longer-term concerns.  We will use ISR to push intelligence issues into the public domain that warrant wider awareness and understanding.  And – of course – we’ll discuss our recent research and publications.  But when we discuss that work, it will not simply be a matter of self-promotion and public relations.  Scholarly research is published across a wide variety of periodicals and other outlets it is frankly hard even for career research scholars to find the material they need just because it is so dispersed.  If BCISS has produced something that you might find of value, your first port of call to look for it will be through ISR. And we’ll be using ISR to better communicate the significance or implications of the work we do beyond the academy.  Because intelligence services and their study matter in the grand scheme of things as well as in the day-to-day staccato of news and events. 

Contributions here will be coming from members of the full-time BCISS team, as well as the research fellows and associates of the Centre. There will be contributions from the world-class postgraduate students of intelligence at Brunel who often have world-class insights to offer and understanding to share.  ISR will inform, often reflect on, and occasionally challenge the perceptions, understanding and awareness of intelligence, in Sherman Kent’s seminal description, as knowledge, activity, and organisation.