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[15 December 2025] The recent detention and charging of the European Union’s former foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, in a fraud investigation should be a somber wake-up call for the EU and its member states. Alongside her, two senior figures are accused of procurement fraud, corruption, conflict of interest and violations of professional secrecy related to the EU-funded European Diplomatic Academy tender—a programme intended to train future diplomats but now at [...]

[11 November 2025] Those of us who have long believed in the strength and strategic necessity of the transatlantic intelligence alliance, have been watching recent news with growing alarm. Two disturbing developments suggest a weakening of U.S.–European intelligence cooperation — and Vladimir Putin is watching, smiling, and calculating. On one side, European intelligence services are increasingly uneasy about their long-term relationship with Washington. According to Le Monde, senior European spymasters [...]

[10 August 2025] Spain’s recent €12.3 million decision to hire Huawei to manage judicial wiretap storage is a dangerous aberration—one that should concern every NATO ally. This choice, which puts the sensitive data of law enforcement and intelligence operations in the hands of a company beholden to the Chinese state, underscores not only flaws in Madrid’s security calculus but also a deeper strategic failure by Washington: alienating its European partners to [...]

[21 July 2025] In a world awash with data, the lines between secrets and open knowledge are increasingly blurred. The recent work by the Finnish investigative group CheckFirst is a striking reminder of this new reality. Using nothing more than publicly available images of commemorative badges—often sold on websites like eBay—a group of open-source researchers managed to reveal critical details about one of Russia’s most secretive cyber-intelligence units. This isn’t just [...]

[9 June 2025] While Moscow and Beijing often tout their relationship as a “friendship without limits,” the reality tells a very different story. The partnership between Russia and China today is not a deep, enduring alliance grounded in trust and shared long-term goals—but rather a tactical marriage of convenience. Leaders in the West should not be fooled into believing it marks a monolithic, monolithic front. In fact, both Russia and China [...]

[22 May 2025] The killing of two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington, DC —a shocking act of violence carried out at the heart of the American capital— marks a sobering turning point in the Israel-Hamas war. This was not a remote tragedy or a foreign skirmish —it was an international flashpoint arriving, unmistakably, on American soil. The notion that this war can be contained within Gaza’s borders has always been a [...]

[26 April 2025] A leaked draft executive order from the Trump administration, first reported by The New York Times on April 12, 2025, proposes a sweeping reorganization of the State Department, including the near-total elimination of its Africa operations. If enacted, this plan would close most US embassies and consulates on the continent, dissolve the Bureau of African Affairs, and sharply reduce diplomatic engagement to a handful of “targeted, mission-driven deployments.” This would [...]

[12 March 2025] Throughout modern history, Russia has consistently demonstrated a pattern of violating international treaties, especially those aimed at preserving the sovereignty of neighboring states. This pattern should serve as a stark warning to Western leaders who may believe they can strike a reliable deal with Moscow to curtail its ambitions of reestablishing an Eastern European "security zone" reminiscent of the Cold War era. The historical record makes it clear: [...]

[16 February 2025] In an increasingly complex and unpredictable world, intelligence cooperation between the United States and Europe remains vital for both international security and U.S. national security. The notion that the U.S. can operate effectively without intelligence sharing and coordination with its European allies is both misguided and dangerous. The transatlantic intelligence partnership has been fundamental in counterterrorism efforts, cyber defense, countering adversarial state actors, and maintaining global stability. Any [...]

[18 January 2025] Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to revolutionize the field of intelligence, making tasks more efficient and effective while introducing new complexities. The recent developments at the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.), as highlighted recently in The New York Times, illustrate the transformative potential of AI tools in managing vast information landscapes and navigating adversarial challenges. These advancements provide a glimpse into how intelligence agencies might utilize AI in the future. A key [...]

[1 January 2024] As we usher in the new year, we are pleased to present our latest publication in our Research Paper Series. It is by Dr Stephan Blancke, an expert on the intelligence and clandestine activities of North Korea and China, who is currently an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in the United Kingdom. Dr Blancke's paper is entitled "Russian Hybrid Warfare and the Delegitimization of the State: [...]

[10 December 2023] Today the European Intelligence Academy presents an essay by Nicholas Eftimiades as the latest installment in its Research Paper Series. Nicholas Eftimiades, a 34-year veteran of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State and the Defense Intelligence Agency, hardly needs an introduction. He is the author of Chinese Intelligence Operations (1994) and the seminal Chinese Espionage Operations and Tactics (2020), which is widely viewed as the standard work on the [...]

[12 August 2023] A new report by a British parliamentary body warns that the modernization of China’s intelligence community is without parallel in recent history and has even outpaced the funding increases given to the Chinese military. According to the same report, the Chinese government spends more on what it perceives as domestic threats than on external targets involving Western countries and their allies. The redacted version of the report was [...]

[20 July 2023] In a report published a few days ago, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) notes that Switzerland has turned into an international espionage battlefield, as more foreign spies are probably active there than in most other European countries. This phenomenon has been partly caused by intensifying competition between the superpowers, the FIS says in its report. According to the FIS, Russian operatives are particularly active in the alpine [...]

[7 June 2023] It was reported earlier this month that senior representatives of more than 20 intelligence agencies from around the world participated in a secret meeting in Singapore. The meeting, which included representatives from American and Chinese intelligence agencies, allegedly took place in parallel to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-level security conference held annually in Singapore. The conference focuses on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. It has been organized [...]

[6 May 2023] Tsai Ming-yen had not spoken in public since assuming assumed the post of Director-General of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau (NSB) in February of this year. His public silence ended last Thursday, when he spoke to an audience of graduating students at Taiwan’s National Chung Hsing University in Taichung City. According to reports, it was the first time in a quarter of a century that an NSB director-general had [...]

[28 April 2023] There is clearly no shortage of notable developments in the field of intelligence. However, the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (MI) to support intelligence operations is likely to prove the most pervasive in the long-run. Over the past few years, intelligence agencies around the world have been investing heavily in developing AI and ML capabilities in support of their mission. On the one hand, [...]

[26 March 2023] Earlier this month, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray said during a television interview that COVID-19 “most likely” originated from a Chinese government laboratory. “For quite some time now”, said Wray, the FBI has “assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan”. Wuhan, a city in central China, hosts the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which includes laboratories that [...]