Admission requirements
This course is designed for the minor Intelligence Studies. It is not possible to follow single courses of this minor. You need to be enrolled in uSis for the minor to be accepted to this course.
This course is also open for inbound exchange students if they wish to take the entire minor Intelligence Studies; it is not possible to take single courses from this minor. Exchange students must be admitted by the FGGA International Office prior to the start of the minor; priority will be given to direct exchange partners of FGGA.
Description
When we picture the activities of intelligence agencies and security services in international affairs and national security, popular culture and imaginations frequently direct us to Cold War imagery. This is because throughout that geopolitical competition to shape the international system, national intelligence and security communities from the liberal capitalist and authoritarian communist blocs and non-aligned states were on the frontline. It was during this era that many of the institutions and practices we recognise in today’s geopolitical competition were formed and formalised, which have been characterised by both legacies and reforms that this course illuminates.
Intelligence officers from the superpowers and their allies clandestinely collected information on their adversaries’ intentions and capabilities for their political and military leaders to gain decision- and competitive-advantage. They sought to protect state secrets from their adversaries through counter-intelligence. And they covertly supported operations to influence not only adversaries and but also decolonising and newly independent states and societies across the so-called Global South (then called the ‘Third World’). The governments of these new states, including their own embryonic intelligence and security services, faced decisions regarding aligning with one of the superpower blocs or charting their own non-aligned course. We know this through a fragmentated array of declassified, leaked, and unofficial sources of contemporary international history of varied reliability and provenance, which this course introduces you to.
This course consequently examines:
- the roles, impacts, successes and failures of intelligence collection and analysis, counter-intelligence, international cooperation, and covert influence on the Cold War frontline
- the interaction between the intelligence communities of the main Cold War protagonists and those in the decolonising states
- what difference these intelligence communities ultimately made to the course of the Cold War and political transitions across the Global South
- the Cold War’s legacies and lessons for its principal intelligence communities
- how to work with different historical sources to know and understand these intelligence actors and processes
Course objectives
After finalizing this course, students will be able to:
1. Understand the influence of the Cold War and decolonisation on superpower and Global South intelligence and security communities
2. Explain why intelligence communities served on the frontline of the Cold War and what difference they made to its course and outcomes
3. Analyse historical sources from several different contexts to deepen their knowledge and understanding of central concepts in Intelligence Studies
4. Debate the controversies that the use of intelligence and security services in these different fields provoked at the time and since
5. Identify the changes and legacies in the intelligence and security services of former Cold War and post-colonial states
Timetable
The timetable will be displayed with a link on this course page, the website, Brightspace and on the front page of this minor programme.
Mode of instruction
7 interactive sessions of 3 hours by instructors (and guest lecturers) comprising lectures and small group work focused on core readings, historical source analysis, and other exercises.
Assessment method
Weekly take home quiz
30% of the overall grade
Closed multiple-choice questions
Resit not possible
Grade can be compensated
Written examination with open questions
70% of the overall grade
Grade must be 5.50 or higher to pass the course
Resit possible
The Course and Examination Regulation Security Studies and the Rules and Regulation of the Board of Examiners of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs apply.
Resit will take place in January.
Resit will take the same form but on a new set of questions.
There will be an opportunity to receive feedback before participating in the resit.
Reading list
See the syllabus uploaded in Brightspace before the course commences. In advance of this, it is recommended to skim through a small number of these articles and books to prepare yourself:
Andrew, Christopher, ‘Intelligence in the Cold War’, in Melvyn P. Leffler & Odd Arne Westad (eds), The Cambridge History of the Cold War, volume 2 (2010), pp. 417 - 437 [e-book access through library]
Andrew, Christopher, ‘Chapter 29: The Cold War and Intelligence Superpowers’, in Christopher Andrew, The Secret World: A History of Intelligence (2018), pp. 669-700 [e-book access through library]
Prados, John, ‘Cold War intelligence history’, in Richard H. Immerman et al (eds), The Oxford handbook of the Cold War (2013): [e-book access through library]
Andrew, Christopher, and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West (1999): accessible at https://archive.org/details/mitrokhinarchive0000andr/page/210/mode/2up
Andrew, Christopher, and Vasili Mitrokhin, The KGB and the Battle for the Third World (2005): accessible at https://ia800606.us.archive.org/32/items/TheWorldWasGoingOurWayTheKGBAndTheBattleForTheTheThirdWorld/The%20World%20Was%20Going%20Our%20Way.pdf
Andrew, Christopher, For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush (1996): chapters on Presidents Harry Truman to George Bush, Snr.
Wilford, Hugh, The CIA: An Imperial History (2024)
Cormac, Rory, Disrupt and Deny: Spies, Special Forces and the Secret Pursuit of British Foreign Policy (2018) [e-book access through library]
Registration
Registration via MyStudymap is possible from Tuesday 14 July 2026 13:00h after registration for the entire minor. Register for every course via MyStudymap. Some courses of the minor have a limited number of participants, so register on time. Registration for the exam is mandatory.
Leiden University uses Brightspace as its online learning management system. After enrolment for the course in MyStudymap you will be automatically enrolled in the Brightspace environment of this course.
More information on registration via MyStudymap can be found on this page.
Please note 1: Registration for the resit of an exam is mandatory, this has to be done by the student and can be done from Monday 1 December 2025 until 10 days before the exam.Until 5 days before the exam you can email OSC and fill in a form.
Please note 2: guest-/contract-/exchange students do not register via MyStudymap but via uSis. Registration via uSis is possible from Thursday 16 July 2026 after registration for the entire minor.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer(s) (listed in the right information bar). For questions about enrolment, admission, etc., contact the Education Administration Office: osc.fgga@fgga.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
This course can only be taken as part of the minor Intelligence Studies.
All sessions will be in English. Assignments need to be written in English.