Need to Know: Intelligence and Politics. Western and Eastern Perspectives
International Conference, 8-9 November, 2011, Brussels.
One of the side-effects of the collapse of the communist system in Central/Eastern Europe was that hitherto highly classified data on key aspects of intelligence operations in some Warsaw Pact countries became relatively easily accessible. These data concerned such fundamental issues as: the impact of intelligence information on political decisions; international intelligence networks; data circulation and processing; goals, methods, and forms of intelligence work; information sources and intelligence operations; and intelligence as an organization.
The main aim of the conference is to confront the experience of scholars from Central/Eastern Europe, who analyze such materials on a daily basis, with research methodologies developed in Western Europe and the United States.
The conference will focus on modern intelligence from the World War II to the War on Terror, however with a emphasis on the Cold War. We do not, however, wish to limit ourselves by this time frame, for we are more concerned with a series of issues worth considering within a comparative framework. We are also mindful of the fact that in the recently announced Stockholm Program the European Union asserted a stronger role in the field at stake (most notably the exchange of intelligence information).
The conference is co-organized by: Paweł Zalewski, MEP (European People’s Party), Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, Center for Cold War Studies of the University of Southern Denmark, and the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
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Program:
Opening Session
- Dr Władysław Bułhak (Poland) – New Vision of Intelligence during the Cold War – Eastern Perspective
- Prof. Thomas Wegener Friis (Denmark) – Why European Intelligence Studies?
- Dr Sławomir Łukasiewicz (Poland) – Spies in Brussels. Polish Communists intelligence in the European institutions during the Cold War period
Session II: HUMINT, part 1 (4 papers, 15 minutes for each)
Chair – Prof. Andrzej Paczkowski (Poland)
- Prof. Idesbald Goddeeris (Belgium) – Belgian and Polish Secret Services during the Cold War
- Prof. Mark Kramer (USA) – CIA Assessments of Warsaw Pact Capabilities and Intentions
- Dr Helmut Müller-Enbergs (Germany) – How successful was the Stasi really in the West?
- Dr Patryk Pleskot (Poland) – DIPLOMAT MEANS SPY. Intelligence activity of Western embassies in Warsaw in the view of the Polish counter-espionage service (1956-1989)
Discussion
Session III: Terror (3 papers, 15 minutes for each)
Chair – Dr Łukasz Kamiński (Poland)
- Przemysław Gasztold-Seń (Poland) – Between Geopolitics and the National Security. Polish Civilian Intelligence and International Terrorism During the Cold War
- Prof. Kostadin Grozev (Bulgaria) – Ideology and Pragmatism: NATO v. Warsaw Pact Countries Approaches to Combating International Terrorism in the late Cold War Period (the case of Bulgaria)
- Steve Hewitt (United Kingdom) – The Use of Informers by US Domestic Security Agencies and the Controversy Surrounding Them from the Cold War to the War on Terror
Discussion
Session IV: HUMINT, part 2 (4 papers, 15 minutes for each)
Chair – Prof. Erik Kulavig (Denmark)
- Dieter Bacher (Austria) – The Recruitment of Austrian Citizens by Foreign Intelligence Services in Austria from 1945 to 1953
- Prof. Kimmo Elo (Finland) – A Spider Spinning Its Web: The East German Foreign Intelligence in the Nordic Countries
- Kurt Jensen, Don Munton (Canada) – International Intelligence Liaison: Canada and the Central Intelligence Agency in the Early Cold War Years
- PhD Matej Medvecky (Slovakia) – Czechoslovak Foreign Intelligence Service and its activities in Great Britain in the first two decades of Cold War
Discussion
Session V: International Relations (4 papers, 15 minutes for each)
Chair – Prof. Christian Ostermann (USA)
- Prof. Jordan Baev (Bulgaria) – The Soviet Bloc Intelligence Information Exchange: Stages, Intensity, Framework, Reliability, and Effectiveness
- Dr Douglas Selvage (Germany/USA) – Intelligence-Gathering and Active Measures: The East European Security Services and the CSCE Process, 1977–1983
- Prof. Jacek Tebinka (Poland) – Intelligence Dimension in Anglo-Polish Relations 1945-1980/1981
- Prof. Jakub Tyszkiewicz (Poland) – The Impact of Analyses prepared by American "Intelligence Community" on U.S. Policy toward Poland in 1956–1970
Discussion
Session VI: Decision-making, part 1 (3 papers, 15 minutes for each)
Chair – Sir Rodric Quentin Braithwaite (United Kingdom)
- Prof. Nadia Boyadijeva (Bulgaria) – Intelligence Support of UN Peacekeeping Operations during the Cold War and After
- Baptiste Colom-Y-Canals (France) – The Construction of the French Strategic Air Intelligence 1949–1972: Study on the evolution of a decision making tool
- Dr Michael Goodman (United Kingdom) – The British Joint Intelligence Committee and the Prediction of International Crises
Discussion
Session VII: Decision-making, part 2 (4 papers, 15 minutes for each)
Chair – Dr Krzysztof Persak (Poland)
- Dr Ben de Jong (Netherlands) – The KGB and the CPSU 1953–1991
- PhD Valery Katzunov (Bulgaria) – The First Main Directorate of Bulgarian State Security: A Foreign Intelligence Unit or a Bulgarian Communist Party Sub-division
- Molly Pucci (USA) – “News From Home”: Wartime Intelligence and Post-war Security in Czechoslovakia, 1938-1946
- Dr Aleksandar Zivotic (Serbia) – Yugoslav Intelligence and Foreign Policy decision-making during the Cold War
Discussion
Conclusion