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[13 August 2026] For much of the postwar era, Germany maintained intelligence services deliberately constrained by law, institutional culture, and historical memory. There were compelling reasons for this restraint. Yet institutions fashioned to meet the dangers of one age cannot remain frozen while the character of the threat changes around them. Germany’s decision to substantially reform the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) is therefore not merely overdue. It represents [...]

[30 April 2026] Europe is entering a strategic environment marked by uncertainty about the durability of long-standing security arrangements and the reliability of traditional alliances. For decades, European defense planning has rested on the assumption of consistent American leadership and support through NATO. That assumption is now increasingly difficult to sustain. A series of recent conflicts has revealed a growing disconnect between the United States’ ability to achieve rapid tactical success [...]

[14 March 2026] As the war involving the United States, Israel, and Iran continues to unfold, policy discussions increasingly revolve around the question of the Iranian regime’s durability. Analysts and commentators alike speculate about whether sustained military pressure might precipitate the collapse of the Islamic Republic. Yet such debates frequently blur an essential analytical distinction: the difference between regime collapse and regime change. From an intelligence and security perspective, these are [...]

[13 February 2026] Intelligence analysts are trained to distinguish between speculation and plausible hypotheses. The latter are not assertions of fact; they are analytical possibilities that merit examination when patterns of behavior, networks, and structural incentives align. In that spirit, it remains important—not sensationalist—to acknowledge that Jeffrey Epstein may have operated, at least in part, as an access agent for a state intelligence service. The purpose of raising this possibility [...]

[18 January 2026] The transatlantic alliance now confronts a perilous inflection point—one that seasoned students of history might recognize as a moment when strategic cohesion became dangerously frayed by policy choices that prize unilateral impulse over collective security. Among the most unsettling developments is the controversy surrounding Greenland—a crisis not merely of territory but of trust and shared purpose across the North Atlantic. For decades, the United States and its European [...]

[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 [...]