Michael S Goodman

Trump Is Breaking American Intelligence “Speak plainly!” Russian President Vladimir Putin snapped at his foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, at a televised security council meeting on the eve of his shambolic full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Naryshkin was visibly nervous. Once he had finally stammered out his support for recognizing the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states—the words Putin was waiting for—he was abruptly told to sit down, like an unprepared pupil flubbing an oral exam.

Must read from General Hayden and David Gioe www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Row over damage to Iran’s nuclear programme raises questions about intelligence The truth may be out there, but the public rarely gets to see it.

A short contribution on the subject of the limitations of intelligence: theconversation.com/row-over-dam...

When Sabotage Goes Orbital: Rethinking the Russian Space Threat

🚨Publication alert🚨Next up on our Insights blog is an examination of the threat of sabotage from Russia in space by @kloosha.bsky.social:
kcsi.uk/kcsi-insight...

Quantity Has a Quality All of Its Own Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian intelligence operations have shifted toward a mass-scale approach, focusing on sabotage, intelligence collection, and influence efforts.

New report from our member Elena Grossfeld (@kloosha.bsky.social)

'Quantity Has a Quality All of Its Own' — how Russian intelligence shifted to mass, low-cost tactics post-Ukraine invasion. Sabotage, spying & disruption at scale. What does it mean for NATO?

www.cna.org/reports/2025...

🚨Our latest Insights piece has just been published, a review of former British diplomat Tim Willasey-Wilsey's book The Spy and the Devil:
kcsi.uk/kcsi-insight...

The Kennedy Assassination Files, India, and New Insights into…

🚨Publication alert!🚨For a fascinating insight into the CIA's work in India, uncovered as part of the release of the Kennedy assassination files, take a look at our latest Insights piece by @paulmcgarr.bsky.social:
kcsi.uk/kcsi-insight...

Russia’s spies: Uncovering Russia’s secret espionage programmes Exploding weapons factories, assassination plots and fake news: Vladimir Putin’s hybrid war campaign against the West has stepped up several notches since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

📢 Join in person/online for @theguardian.com Live Events where I'll be speaking alongside christogrozev.bsky.social & @shaunwalker7.bsky.social about the UK's largest #spytrial and what it tells us about contemporary #espionage & #activemeasures.

22nd May / 19:30-21:00 / Register: shorturl.at/yY8cf

🎧 #WatchingTheJackals is now on #Audible & in other audiobook stores near you.

Many thanks to @rbmediaco.bsky.social & #GUP for bringing this to life!

@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social / @warstudieskcl.bsky.social / @kcsi.uk / @camsecurity.bsky.social

The Shallow State: Trump 2.0 is putting America’s critical intelligence liaison relationships in jeopardy In early April, Donald Trump dismissed the head of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), Timothy Haugh, along with his deputy, following a meeting with a far-right activist who raised suspicions about the loyalty of several members of the president’s administration. This is not the first intelligence-related scandal so far during Trump’s current term. The most prominent incident involved a high-level discussion conducted via Signal chat — which, by accident, included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. These episodes not only hinder the functioning of the U.S. intelligence community but also undermine its credibility on the global stage. Intelligence sharing among allies is a vital instrument for gaining political and military advantage, but without mutual trust, such cooperation is impossible. Nonetheless, Western intelligence agencies still have an interest in maintaining ties with their U.S. counterparts — even under Trump — writes David Gioe, a visiting professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and a former CIA analyst and operations officer.

New addition

Blog post: The Shallow State: Trump 2.0 is putting America’s critical intelligence liaison relationships in jeopardy by David V. Gioe (published 23-04-2025)

https://theins.ru/en/opinion/david-gioe/280811

H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-32 on Stout, World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence 21 April 2025 | PDF: https://issforum.org/to/jrt16-34 | Website: rjissf.org | Twitter: @HDiplo Editor: Diane Labrosse Commissioning Editor: Sarah-Jane Corke Production Editor: Christopher Ball Pre…

I feel proud and very honored that my book “World War I and the Foundations of American Intelligence” (UPK, 2023) is the subject of the latest H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable. I hope this encourages others to work in the field. 1/3

🎙️Join Dr @paulmcgarr.bsky.social as he dives into the secretive world of espionage.🕵️‍♂️

From Trump’s clashes with the FBI to China’s spy network and the transformation of spying through smartphones—Dr McGarr unravels it all!

🎧Listen now:
bit.ly/4lxDZ9D

Encrypted but Exposed: Communications Shortcut Results in Signal-gate

🚨Publication alert🚨Our latest Insights piece - analysis of Signal-gate - by David Gioe and Tony Manganello is out now:
kcsi.uk/kcsi-insight...

Beyond the Binary: A New Typology for Evaluating Warning Success and Failure in Strategic Surprise Abstract. Why do some intelligence warning processes succeed in anticipating surprise while others fail? This article challenges the binary perspective on

Just published: My open access article in ISR.
We've seen many "Intelligence failure" accusations recently, but binary framing obscures how warning systems actually fail. The new typology I propose enables a more comprehensive understanding of warning effectiveness. academic.oup.com/isr/article/...

Society for Intelligence History | LinkedIn Society for Intelligence History | 231 followers on LinkedIn. Formerly known as the North American Society for Intelligence History (NASIH), the Society for Intelligence History (SIH) is a membership ...

A reminder to our members and fellow Intelligence History scholars: We are always happy to promote your work.

Just tag us or send us a Direct Message or here or at LinkedIn and we'll celebrate your achievements with you.

( You can find us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/soci...)

Professor Michael Goodman elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Professor Michael Goodman has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) in its latest round of appointments.

🎉Congratulations to Professor Michael Goodman from Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy on being elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences!

A well-deserved recognition for his outstanding contributions to intelligence history and social science. 👏

Find out more:
bit.ly/4lBde4q

Strategic Intelligence: Empowering Business Executives

Great article just published by @kcsi.uk Insights from Thea Gioe on the pressing importance of effectively utilising strategic intelligence in the corporate world kcsi.uk/kcsi-insight...

Putin’s Spies for Hire: What the U.K.’s Biggest Espionage Trial Revealed about Kremlin Tactics in Wartime Europe - War on the Rocks In early 2023, in the sleepy English seaside town of Great Yarmouth, a covert operation was quietly revving into gear. Second-hand Chryslers and a

📑 My latest for @warontherocks.bsky.social:

#BulgarianSpies #JanMarsalek #OldBailey #WarInUkraine #FSB #GRU

The largest spy trial in UK history revealed an unusual espionage network & how Moscow's covert ops escalated shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

👉 shorturl.at/ymu4U

Capping off week 1 of our ISI-Pro course, delegates heard from @kcsi.uk members Professor Sir David Omand on managing slow burning crises & @drichterova.bsky.social on #Russian #sabotage. Concluding the day was a candlelit formal hall dinner at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Obituary: Oleg Gordievsky

🚨Publication alert 🚨Our latest Insights contribution by Dr Huw Dylan - an obituary of Oleg Gordievsky - is now live! kcsi.uk/kcsi-insight...

A forgotten CIA programme that changed minds Thanks to the agency 10m books made it into the eastern bloc

A forgotten CIA programme that changed minds

www.economist.com/culture/2025...

The President’s Kill List The President’s Kill List

The moment has arrived, my Edinburgh University Press book The President's Kill List is now available for pre-order in paperback. It is only £24.99. Plus, you can get a 30% discount with the code PAPER30.

It is the perfect beach read.

edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-pre...

The Evidence Speaks: Open-Source Intelligence, Justice, and… Wed 26th Mar 18:30 - Join us for an eye-opening discussion on the role of OSINT in Ukraine and beyond.

In person event

The Evi­dence Speaks: Open-Source Intel­li­gence, Jus­tice, and Accountability by King's Centre for the Study of Intelligence (KCSI) (on 2025-03-26)

https://kcsi.uk/events/the-evidence-speaks-open-source-intelligence-justice-and-accountability

Back to work after a week off and wanted to belatedly share thoughts on America's Middle East policy after a trip to DC this month. The first of which is that Trump has a skeleton crew: if personnel is policy, there's almost no policy because there are almost no personnel. 🧵

BRIXMIS and the Secret Cold War The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, was the frontline in the Cold War, packed with hundreds of thousands of Soviet and East German troops…

New addition

Book: BRIXMIS and the Secret Cold War by Andrew Long (published 05-12-2024)

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/BRIXMIS-and-the-Secret-Cold-War-Hardback/p/50780

Book publishing is magical. It only feels like a couple of months ago I was series editing this bad boy in the pub … and now voila here it is.

Huge congratulations to @sandbaggerone.bsky.social and Chris Murphy. It’s a fantastic book and a big contribution to the lit!

Musk’s X suspends opposition accounts in Turkey amid civil unrest Suspensions affect accounts spreading information about the widespread demonstrations.

The EU should completely ban X. It is not a social media platform but an mechanism to bring down democracies.

www.politico.eu/article/musk...

Interesting from Tom Tugendhat, a former security minister, on how Russian sabotage plots are tackled. “Police teams break the financial incentives driving these acts by tracing the money, blocking the payments and prosecuting the middlemen” www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03...

Former KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky dies at Surrey home - BBC News Counter-terrorism police are assisting the coroner, but his death is not being treated as suspicious.

Oleg Gordievsky has died. What makes him so interesting is that he illustrates the stabilising role intelligence can play: he helped Reagan & Thatcher understand the USSR was genuinely worried about nuclear war, allowing them to take that into account in their policy www.bbc.com/news/article...

✍️"I am very conscious of your personal courage and your stand for freedom and democracy".

Mrs Thatcher to Oleg Gordievsky, 7th September 1985.

Typhoons in Cyberspace The transformation of China’s digital attack capabilities is the most important change in the cyber threat to the West in more than a decade, writes Ciaran Martin.

The latest #RUSICommentary by ciaranm.bsky.social explores the significant shift in China as a cyber threat actor, and outlines its new political, strategic and active footing in cyberspace which facilitates disruptive operations against Western critical infrastructure.