10 Items

A man looks at a destroyed Russian tank placed as a symbol of war in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine

AP/Natacha Pisarenko, File

Journal Article - Texas National Security Review

What's Old Is New Again: Cold War Lessons for Countering Disinformation

| Fall 2022

Hostile foreign states are using weaponized information to attack the United States. Russia and China are disseminating disinformation about domestic U.S. race relations and COVID-19 to undermine and discredit the U.S. government. These information warfare attacks, which threaten U.S. national security, may seem new, but they are not. Using an applied history methodology and a wealth of previously classified archival records, this article uses two case studies to reveal how and why a hostile foreign state, the Soviet Union, targeted America with similar disinformation in the past

peace marchers pass shoulder to shoulder in front of the White House

AP File

Journal Article - Journal of Applied History

Spying on Americans: US Intelligence, Race Protests, and Dissident Movements

| 2021

Protests against racism erupt in cities across America. A White House, under siege, believes a vast conspiracy is at work, and, to uncover it, instigates a policy to spy on Americans. This is not the United States in 2020, but half a century earlier. Using a wealth of declassified records, this article explores a domestic intelligence collection program (CHAOS) instigated by two  successive US administrations and conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Salvador Allende sculpture in Santiago, Chile

Flickr CC/David Berkowitz

Journal Article - Review of International Affairs

What Constitutes Successful Covert Action? Evaluating Unacknowledged Interventionism in Foreign Affairs

| 2021

Covert action has long been a controversial tool of international relations. However, there is remarkably little public understanding about whether it works and, more fundamentally, about what constitutes success in this shadowy arena of state activity. This article distills competing criteria of success and examines how covert actions become perceived as successes.

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News - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

John Kerry Adds Exclamation Point to Climate Change, Intelligence, and Global Security Conference

| Apr. 27, 2021

On Friday, April 23, the Belfer Center’s Intelligence Project and Environment and Natural Resources Program, along with the Center for Climate and Security, co-hosted a half-day conference on Climate Change, Intelligence, and Global Security. The conference featured a keynote address from Secretary John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, and came directly after President Joe Biden’s Earth Day Leaders Climate Summit.

Announcement

Intelligence Project Fall 2020 Study Group

| Sep. 02, 2020

The Intelligence Study Group is designed for students considering careers in government or private sector intelligence, as well as for those interested in a broad introduction to intelligence as applied in business and government decision-making. Over the course of 10 sessions, participants will become familiar with intelligence history, methodology, organizations and practice. The Study Group will use historical examples (‘Applied History’), current readings, and discussion to examine how intelligence enhances policy decision-making, where it fails, and the differences between intelligence in liberal democracies and one-party states.

The sessions will be led by former senior CIA officer Paul Kolbe, Director of the Belfer Center Intelligence Project, and Intelligence Historian, Calder Walton, Belfer Intelligence Project Director of Research.

Participation is limited to 20 students determined by application. Please see below for how to apply!

Robert Mueller's redacted report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election

AP/Jon Elswick

Journal Article - Brown Journal of World Affairs

Spies, Election Meddling, and Disinformation: Past and Present

| Fall/Winter 2019

This article, an exercise of applied history, has two aims: first, to understand the history of Soviet disinformation, and second, to make sense of Western efforts to counter it during the Cold War. Doing so provides policy-relevant conclusions from history about countering disinformation produced by Russia and other authoritarian regimes today.

Announcement

Intelligence Project Spring Study Group

| Jan. 27, 2020

The Intelligence Study Group is designed for students considering careers in government or private sector intelligence, as well as for those interested in a broad introduction to intelligence as applied in business and government decision-making. Over the course of 10 sessions, participants will become familiar with intelligence history, methodology, organizations and practice. The Study Group will use historical examples (‘Applied History’), current readings, and discussion to examine how intelligence enhances policy decision-making, where it fails, and the differences between intelligence in liberal democracies and one-party states.

The sessions will be led by former senior CIA officer Paul Kolbe, Director of the Belfer Center Intelligence Project, and Intelligence Historian, Calder Walton, Belfer Intelligence Project Director of Research.

Participation is limited to 20 students determined by application. Please see below for how to apply!