Project Lead

• Matthew Hefler – Project Lead, AJI Intelligence and Security Programme and Senior Research Fellow, Center for Statecraft and Strategic Communication, Stockholm School of Economics

Affiliated Researchers

• Rikard Westerberg – Center Director, Center for Statecraft and Strategic Communication, Stockholm School of Economics

• Martin Carlsson-Wall – Center Director, Center for Security and Resilience, Stockholm School of Economics

• Ronan Mainprize – AJI Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Statecraft and Strategic Communication, Stockholm School of Economics

• Pontus Rudberg – Affiliated Researcher, Lund University

  • Affiliated project: Statecraft and Secrecy: The Early Modern Roots of Swedish Intelligence

Matthew Hefler, “Josephine Baker: Take on the British Empire” in Spies in History: From the Ancient World to the Silver Screen, Edited by Paul Lay, Published by Bokförlaget Stolpe, November 2025

Ronan Mainprize, “George Carver: CIA's Man in Vietnam” in Spies in History: From the Ancient World to the Silver Screen, Edited by Paul Lay, Published by Bokförlaget Stolpe, November 2025

Rikard Westerberg, “The Firm, the Bank, and the Family: Military Intelligence and the Wallenbergs in Sweden’s Cold War” 

Matthew Hefler, ‘Josephine Baker’s secret war’, Engelsberg Ideas, 22 August 2025

Matthew Hefler, ‘An Attack on US intelligence’, Engelsberg Ideas, 10 July 2025

Matthew Hefler, (Ed.), Intelligence and Contemporary Conflict: Communication in Diplomacy, Statecraft and War, Bokförlaget Stolpe, 25 September 2025, ISBN: 9789189882157

Ronan Mainprize and Matthew Hefler, ‘Trump and Europe’s Intelligence-Sharing Problem’, The Cipher Brief

Intelligence and Contemporary Global Challenges – Major international research seminar, Engelsberg Ironworks, October 2025, see the full playlist on Youtube

Book Launch, King’s College London, April 2025: Intelligence and Contemporary Conflict: Communication in Diplomacy, Statecraft and War. 

Book Launch, SSE, April 2025: Intelligence and Contemporary Conflict: Communication in Diplomacy, Statecraft and War.

Intelligence, Communication and Contemporary Global Conflict – Major international research seminar, Engelsberg Ironworks, November 2025, see the full playlist on Youtube

Matthew Hefler, CBC Mainstreet NS – Intelligence Sharing and new US National Security Strategy – Friday 12 December 2025

Matthew Hefler, CBC Mainstreet Nova Scotia – Sweden as an Ally and Sweden’s preparations for increasing global competition

Rikard Westerberg, Book talk, Hedengrens book shop, Stockholm, on Spies in History by Bokförlaget Stolpe

Matthew Hefler, Appeared on CBC Radio to discuss latest developments in intelligence and security

Matthew Hefler and Ronan Mainprize, Appeared on the Cipher Brief YouTube to discuss their Cipher Brief article

The AJI Intelligence and Security Programme Digital Seminar is a monthly gathering dedicated to cutting-edge intelligence research and analysis. It is designed as an online hub for intelligence specialists, scholars or general public interested in issues of security and statecraft, and a place where researchers and current and former intelligence practitioners can interact. Most of all, the seminar is a forum for the study of intelligence and security in the Nordic countries and across the transatlantic AJI more broadly.

The digital seminar takes place the second Tuesday of every month during the academic year, at 10:00 EST / 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET. Those interested in attending the seminar should register here.

Seminar Leads:

Convenor:

Dr. Matthew Hefler,  Stockholm School of Economics

Co-Convenors:

Dr. Rikard Westerberg, Stockholm School of Economics

Dr. Kristin Ven Bruusgaard, Norwegian Intelligence School, NORIS

Dr. Tony Ingesson, Lund University

Dr. Clément Renault, Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l'Ecole Militaire (IRSEM)

John Sipher, Atlantic Council, Former Senior Intelligence Officer

Marc Polymeropoulos, Former Senior Intelligence Official

Dr. Ronan Mainprize, Stockholm School of Economics

Dr. Niklas Rossbach, Swedish Defence University (Försvarshögskolan)

Professor Hans Jörgensen, Umeå University

AJI Intelligence and Security Digital Seminar Series, 2026

Upcoming Seminars

10 March 2026 - 10:00 EST / 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET

Richard J. Aldrich - US intelligence, Secrecy, and the Media in the 21st Century

14 April 2026 - 10:00 EST / 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET

Gudrun Persson - Novel insights into Russian military thought—from the Crimean War to the war in Ukraine

 

Abstract: The development of the Russian military's strategic thought is an understudied and thus misunderstood subject in the West. Strategy in Russia encompasses the broader context of foreign and domestic policy as well as the military's ties to the country's leadership. The military's strategic thought is closely linked to Russia's existence as a state and explains patterns of Russian confrontation.

In Russian Military Thought, the renowned scholar Gudrun Persson offers novel insights into Russian military thought on doctrine and strategy, from the Crimean War to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Persson dismantles the simplistic notion that Russian military thought is "backward," instead presenting a deeper analysis of the drivers that influence the changes in Russian military strategy. Through archival research based on Russian language sources, Persson offers a multidisciplinary perspective, drawing on theoretical insights from history and political science that enable her to make a nuanced, qualitative analysis.

This book will be essential reading for practitioners, scholars, and students who seek to understand the mind-set of the current Russian leadership and the constraints that shape Russia's future possibilities.

 

Bio: Dr. Gudrun Persson, Associate Professor at the Slavic Department, Stockholm University. She has published widely on Russian affairs, including five monographs. She is a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences, and The Royal Society of Naval Sciences. Her latest book is "Russian Military Thought: The Evolution of Strategy since the Crimean War" (Georgetown University Press, 2025).

 

 

12 May 2026 - 10:00 EST / 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET

Damien Van Puyvelde - The French DGSE: Secrecy, Reform, and Representation

Abstract: France has traditionally treated intelligence as a secret instrument of executive power, rooted in raison d’État and largely shielded from public scrutiny. Yet in recent decades, intelligence has gradually emerged as a recognised public policy domain, accompanied by growing oversight, public communication, and cultural representation. The evolution of the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) reflects this shift. Once associated primarily with covert operations and scandals, France's foreign intelligence service now occupies a more visible place in political discourse while promoting selective narratives about its missions, values, and past performance, from its Second World War heritage to more recent episodes such as French intelligence assessments of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. How do intelligence agencies construct and sustain legitimacy in democratic societies? And how do institutional self-representations shape reform and mediate tensions between secrecy and accountability?

 

Bio: Damien Van Puyvelde is Associate Professor and Head of the Intelligence and Security Research Group at Leiden University. He also serves as a research fellow with the Strategic Research Institute of the French Ministry of Armed Forces. He is the author of Outsourcing US Intelligence, co-author of Cybersecurity: Politics, Governance and Conflict in Cyberspace (Polity), and co-editor of Researching National Security Intelligence, and Covert Action: National Approaches to unacknowledged interventions. His latest book: The DGSE: A Concise History of France's Foreign Intelligence Service, is now out with Georgetown University Press.

 

 

Past Seminars 2026

27 January 2026 - 10:00 EST / 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET

Jeffrey Rogg – Book Talk: The Spy and the State: The History of American Intelligence

Abstract: Is the NSA spying on Americans? It wouldn't be the first time. Does the CIA still assassinate people? Depends on what you mean by "assassinate." Is the intelligence community really a "deep state" that subverts American democracy? Not exactly, but it has interfered in politics too often in US history. These types of questions have preoccupied the American people and international audiences in recent years. But the origins of these and other controversies reach back even further in US history. The Spy and the State provides readers with the foundation to understand the past, navigate the present, and shape the future of American intelligence.

Bio: Dr. Jeffrey Rogg is Senior Research Fellow at the University of South Florida’s Global and National Security Institute. Previously, he was an assistant professor at the Joint Special Operations University (U.S. Special Operations Command) and The Citadel. He was also a postdoctoral fellow in the National Security Affairs Department at the U.S. Naval War College.

Jeff is the vice president of the Society for Intelligence History and an assistant editor of Intelligence and National Security. His work has appeared in several academic journals and volumes as well as media including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The National Interest, The Hill, and the Los Angeles Times. Jeff’s book, The Spy and the State: The History of American Intelligence, was published by Oxford University Press in June 2025.

Jeff has a BA in Latin and ancient history from Swarthmore College, a JD from Villanova University School of Law, an MA in security studies from Georgetown University, and a PhD in history from The Ohio State University. He served six years in the Massachusetts Army National Guard as an infantryman.

10 February 2026 - 10:00 EST / 15:00 GMT / 16:00 CET

John Blaxland - Revealing Secrets About the Antecedents of the Five Eyes Network

Abstract: This lecture examines the evolution of signals intelligence (SIGINT) and cyber capabilities as core pillars of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership. Tracing developments from early cryptology and wartime SIGINT cooperation to contemporary cyber operations, it highlights how technological change, alliance trust, and shared operational experience shaped enduring intelligence integration among Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand. Case studies from the Second World War, the Cold War, and post–Cold War operations illustrate continuity and adaptation in intelligence practice. The lecture concludes by assessing contemporary challenges—from cyber vulnerability to alliance strain—and explores future trajectories for Five Eyes cooperation in an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific environment.

Bio: Dr John Blaxland is Director of the ANU North America Liaison Office and Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC), Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University (ANU). A former Australian military intelligence officer, he is a trusted and highly regarded historian who has authored or co-authored over a dozen broad-ranging works on international, military, security and intelligence affairs including: Revealing Secrets: An Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence and the Advent of Cyber (UNSW Press, 2023); The Secret Cold War: the official history of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Vol. III (Allen & Unwin, 2016); and The Protest Years: the official history of ASIO, Vol., II (Allen & Unwin, 2015). He is also an occasional media commentator.