Pauline Blistène is a Lecturer in Strategic Communication at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Her research and teaching focus on spy fiction, the theoretical foundations of intelligence (secrecy, reason of state), disinformation, as well as the French intelligence community. She is Research Coordinator of the King’s Centre for the Study of Intelligence (KCSI).

She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where her doctoral dissertation received the Grand Prix of France’s Intelligence Academy and the Bastien Irondelle Prize of the Association for War and Strategic Studies. In 2019, she received the Best Student Paper award from the Intelligence Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA). She has published widely, including in Intelligence and National Security and the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, and is completing her first book, Hidden in Plain Sight: Spy Fiction, Secrecy and Democracy (under contract with Princeton University Press).

Previously, Pauline was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the ERC-funded DEMOSERIES project at the Sorbonne and a former Research Associate at the Norwegian Defence Intelligence School. She has held visiting positions at the University of Cambridge and Columbia University. Alongside academia, she produced the acclaimed podcast ‘Espion, une vie sous légende’, exploring the realities of espionage through the lens of the French hit series The Bureau. Before academia, she worked as a journalist for the national radio station France Culture.

Research interests

• Spy fiction
• Public perceptions of intelligence
• Secrecy
• Disinformation
• Conspiracy & conspiracy theories
• France & French intelligence

Pauline is happy to offer PhD supervision in the following broad areas:

• Spy fiction
• Theoretical foundations of intelligence
• Disinformation
• Propaganda
• France & French intelligence

Publications

Books

• Hidden in Plain Sight. Spy fiction, Secrecy and Democracy (under contract with Princeton University Press).

Edited volumes and special issues

• “Quand le renseignement se livre : pratiques et stratégies d’extériorisation”, Etudes françaises de renseignement et de cyber, Special issue co-edited with J. Leviste, Spring 2024, Issue 4, https://www.etudesfrc.com/_files/ugd/af4a57_8dafd78063d04c1893aadfece6f8f661.pdf
• L’événement 11 septembre, Presses Universitaires de la Sorbonne, December 2024, https://demoseries.pantheonsorbonne.fr/publications/levenement-11-septembre-0

• “John le Carré, Spy Fiction and Intelligence”, Special issue of Intelligence and National Security co-edited with Damien Van Puyvelde, December 2022, 38:2, https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fint20/38/2

Peer-reviewed articles (selected)

• “Sea, sex and spies. On Gérard de Villiers’ relations with the covert world”, Intelligence and National Security, 2024, 39:2, 327–342, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02684527.2023.2291874

• “La communication au secret. Comment la DGSE a remodelé son image publique”, Communication, Technologie, Pouvoir, 2022, 106:2, pp. 135-148, https://journals.openedition.org/quaderni/2328

• ‘The Bureau and the realism of spy fiction’, Open Philosophy, 2022, 5:1, pp. 231-249, https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/opphil-2020-0178/html

• ‘Ordinary lives behind extraordinary occupation: on the uses of Rubicon for a social history of American Intelligence’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 2021, 34:5, pp. 739-760, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09557571.2021.1892592

• “Le secret comme ordinaire : Le Bureau des Légendes et la modification du regard”, A contrario. Revue interdisciplinaire de sciences sociales, 2018, 26 :1, pp. 115-133, https://shs.cairn.info/revue-a-contrario-2018-1-page-115?lang=fr

Book chapters (selected)

• “Taking Fiction Seriously. Spy fiction, Secrecy and Democracy”, in Willmetts ed, Spies, Culture, and Society. Coming in from the Cold, Georgetown University Press, forthcoming February 2026, https://press.georgetown.edu/Book/Spies-Culture-and-Society

• “Paris 2015 – ISIS Attacks Paris”, in B. Grønning and S. Stenslie eds, Contemporary Intelligence Warning Cases. Learning from Successes and Failures, Edinburgh University Press, 2024, 147-167, https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-contemporary-intelligence-warning-cases.html

Media

• “Inside the early modern spy’s toolbox”, Engelsberg Ideas, 25 February 2025, https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/inside-the-early-modern-spys-toolkit/
• “The myth and Magic of Spy fiction”, Engelsberg Ideas, a podcast with Sir David Omand, 13 February 2025, https://engelsbergideas.com/podcast/ei-talks/ei-talks-the-myth-and-magic-of-spy-fiction/
• “Israel’s Fauda fallacy”, Engelsberg Ideas, October 2023, https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/israels-fauda-fallacy/

Teaching

• 7SSWN403 Intelligence in Peace and War
• 6SSW3041 The Secret World: Global Intelligence Systems
• 6SSW3056 Disinformation & Information Warfare
• 7SSWN403 Intelligence in Peace and War
• 6SSW3041 The Secret World: Global Intelligence Systems
• 6SSW3056 Disinformation & Information Warfare

PURE profile

https://kcsi.uk/members/dr-pauline-blistene