Melanie Brand

This. It takes so much more effort and time to mark students’ work and assess journal submissions that have been written/heavily edited by AI

Inside the plan to kill Ali Khamenei Israel spent years hacking Tehran’s traffic cameras and monitoring bodyguards ahead of the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader

Some interesting detail here about the intelligence picture (esp. SIGINT) in the run-up to the assassination. We’ll be talking about surveillance and algorithms in tomorrow’s seminar on my secrecy & accountability module.

Just under 2 weeks left to get your submissions in for SIH’s 2026 conference, hosted at King’s College London with the 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗴’𝘀 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 kcsi.uk and the 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗮𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 @warstudieskcl.bsky.social

𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 15, send proposals to: SIH2026Conf@gmail.com

REVIEW: Monica Robbins compares the kind of research academics do in the university with "strategic intelligence analysis [which is] is inherently messy, high-stakes, and subject to rapidly changing circumstances and incomplete information."

Intelligence and National Security Intelligence and the Russo-Ukrainian War. Volume 39, Issue 3 of Intelligence and National Security

Interesting story in today's Guardian about intelligence in the lead up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

For more on this, see our Special Issue on intelligence and the Ukraine War, published in Feb 2022.

www.tandfonline.com/toc/fint20/3...

I’m super excited to share the cover of my new book “Blind Trust: Secrecy, Scandal and intelligence Accountability in Cold War Australia”! Coming out soon with @georgetownup.bsky.social

This ⬇️ We really appreciate the hard work of all the researchers, peer reviewers and book reviewers that make each issue possible. Thank you!

🕵️‍♀️ Last chance to nominate #intelligence books for the Polly Corrigan and Kjetil Hatlebrekke Book Prizes. 🤩

Out Monday! Sir Lawrence Freedman called it "a fascinating history". Never been more topical. How social scientists invented strategic intelligence analysis in 1950 and re-established CIA's reputation. Order now on Amazon Books amazon.com/Intelligence-I…

The National Archives of Australia have declassified federal Cabinet documents for 2005 today. A selection have been digitised.

www.naa.gov.au/explore-coll...

This ⬇️ Please do get in touch with the book review editor of a journal in your field if you have a new book for review or if you’d like to review a particular book. I’m always happy to hear about new releases and will get you a review copy if you want to review something for @jpict.bsky.social

In the midst of everything going on this week, I wrote a thing for the Australian Policy & History blog on the ongoing impact of James Bond, even in Australia:

“Arrestingly well-researched and rich in biographical detail, this remarkable book reveals that America’s top spies believed in social science and hoped universities could rescue the early CIA from intelligence failure.” —Richard Aldrich, author of GCHQ: The Uncensored Story.

In the midst of everything going on this week, I wrote a thing for the Australian Policy & History blog on the ongoing impact of James Bond, even in Australia:

Counter-intelligence at its core: assessing and preventing foreign espionage Published in Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism (Ahead of Print, 2025)

Grab your copy of one of 50 free eprints of my review of Riehle's book 'Counter-intelligence at its core'. So useful in fact, it informed my recent work redesigning the Admiralty Code (NATO Code)!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KMJU2...

3. Australia John McEwen is expected to be sworn in as interim prime minister to-day or tomorrow. Australian leaders, still recovering from the shock of Harold Holt’s presumed death, have not yet worked out the next steps. [redacted] No important changes in government policies are expected.

This is the CIA daily briefing for US President Johnson after the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared while swimming on 17 December, 1967.

www.cia.gov/readingroom/...

We are also looking for a reviewer for this really interesting book for @jpict.bsky.social if anyone is interested!

An Institution Betrayed GH on the State Library's post-literate plans

Mr Gideon Haigh on why the ongoing, incompetent and dull-witted enshittification of the State Library of Victoria is so heartbreaking, so stupid, and so dangerous. Please share. www.cricketetal.com/p/an-institu...

I agree - great premise and so much about the state of academia rang true. Every time I hear the Hamilton sound track I think about the job interview scene!

Amazing news! Grats on the DECRA!

Win 1 of 3 copies of The President’s Kill List

🚨 Competition!

There is still time to win 1 of 3 copies of The President’s Kill List: Assassination and US Foreign Policy since 1945 by Luca Trenta.

You can enter here:

🎉 Next up in our 20th bday book 📖, we have another enormously popular 🚨 OPEN ACCESS 🚨 article by @tonyingesson.bsky.social and Magnus Andersson, who examined numbers stations and radio 📻 in the 21st century in "Clandestine communications in cyber-denied environments" ➡️ doi.org/10.1080/1833...

SLV is a beautiful, useful and very busy research space, and I use it regularly. I hope that they rethink these cuts & recognise that the library is so much more than a tourist destination.

Careers at CDU | Charles Darwin University Discover career opportunities and find useful information about working at CDU.

Charles Darwin University is looking for a Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges and Heritage, which will suit an anthropologist or archaeologist with a focus on Australia.

Continuing Full Time, Teaching Focused, Level A/B
A$76,604 – A$137,659 pa

Details here:
www.cdu.edu.au/careers-cdu

💡Moving on to some of our most popular intel articles, first up we have James Ramsey and Andrew Macpherson, who asked "Is the academy equipping tomorrow’s intelligence
professionals to analyze data-centric threats?" Read it here & in our upcoming 20th bday collection! 🎉 ➡️ doi.org/10.1080/1833...

Learning from Canberra: A Smarter Vision for UK Intelligence and National Security Without adopting Canberra's policies wholesale, the UK's intelligence-policymaker network would benefit from making some of the changes Australia has implemented, particularly the designation of a principal adviser to the Prime Minister on intelligence ...

'The current Labour government does make considerable use of the NSC, but has made some structural changes which have created more distance between policymakers and the intelligence agencies' writes @drceliap-v.bsky.social in latest RUSI Commentary.

We are hiring! @mqsois.bsky.social is currently recruiting a full time, ongoing Lecturer Level B in Cyber Security and Cyber Intelligence. This is a Teaching & Leadership position and could be a great opportunity for an early career academic. More info here: www.seek.com.au/job/88616507

I’m really excited to be speaking as part of a panel on the Politics of Intelligence at APSA 2025 with the very talented @andrewzammit.bsky.social and David Schaefer. I’ll be presenting my research with Brian Cuddy on the politics of the Hope RCIS on Wednesday afternoon - come past if you can!

We are hiring! @mqsois.bsky.social is currently recruiting a full time, ongoing Lecturer Level B in Cyber Security and Cyber Intelligence. This is a Teaching & Leadership position and could be a great opportunity for an early career academic. More info here: www.seek.com.au/job/88616507

This text is taken from the Jan-June 2026 UNSW Press catalogue (too much to fit in this box) - https://unsw.press/catalogues/

Happy to share my new book 'Quiet Protest: A New History of Activism during the Vietnam War', which will be published by UNSW Press on 1 April 2026.