Abstract

In this lecture Professor Goodman will consider the evolution of the Joint Intelligence Committee’s role as Britain’s watchdog, focussing primarily on the Cold War period. The lecture will include a number of case studies, both of successful warnings but also of notable failings. It will examine different sources of intelligence collection in the production of intelligence warnings, of tactical versus strategic warning, and the thorny issue of the relationship between the producers and consumers of intelligence.

About Michael Goodman

Professor Michael S. Goodman is Professor of ‘Intelligence and International Affairs’ in the Department of War Studies, King's College London and Visiting Professor at the Norwegian Defence Intelligence School. He has published widely in the field of intelligence history, including most recently The Official History of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Volume I: From the Approach of the Second World War to the Suez Crisis (Routledge, 2015), which was chosen as one of The Spectator’s books of the year. He is series editor for ‘Intelligence, Surveillance and Secret Warfare’ for Edinburgh University Press; and is a member of the editorial boards for five journals. He has recently finished a secondment to the Cabinet Office, where he has been the Official Historian of the Joint Intelligence Committee: Volume II will be published in 2018.

He is a lifelong West Ham fan and season ticket holder, as his choice of powerpoint slides will demonstrate.