Dr Artemis Photiadou

This course is available on the MA in Asian and International History (LSE and NUS), MA in Modern History, MSc in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation, MSc in History of International Relations, MSc in International Affairs (LSE and Peking University), MSc in International and Asian History, MSc in International and World History (LSE & Columbia) and MSc in Theory and History of International Relations. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

How to apply: Students should write a short statement supporting their application to take a course. The Teacher Responsible will assign places on the course and their decision is final. Places will be assigned by midday on the Monday of week 1.

For queries contact: The teacher responsible for the course, as indicated on the course guide. Staff e-mail addresses are listed at https://www.lse.ac.uk/International-History/People.

The course examines the evolution of Britain’s intelligence and security apparatus as a central component of state power from the early twentieth century to the early 2000s. It situates intelligence within the broader contexts of conflict, decolonisation, and of an increasingly globalised security order, tracing how intelligence institutions became embedded in British statecraft and decision-making.

Through studying the development of Britain’s core intelligence institutions – MI5, MI6, GCHQ, and the Joint Intelligence Committee – students will explore how intelligence informed policy at key moments of crisis. They will also examine the domestic political dimensions of secrecy, including the balance between national security and individual rights, questions of parliamentary and judicial oversight, and the impact of major scandals concerning infiltrations, defections, and abuses of power. Topics include the ‘Zinoviev Letter’ and the Red Scare, the role of intelligence during the two world wars, the ‘Five Eyes’ in theory and practice, atomic espionage, the impact and aftermath of the ‘Cambridge Five’, intelligence and counterinsurgency, interrogation and torture, spies and the public imagination, and the intelligence controversies of the Iraq War.

During the weekly seminars, students will engage with archival sources, they will critically assess official histories, and evaluate competing historiographical narratives. By the end of the course, students will be able to: conceptualise the evolution of Britain’s intelligence system within the broader history of the British state; assess the contribution of intelligence to political decisions; evaluate contrasting historiographical approaches to secrecy and power; situate the British experience within international debates on intelligence and democracy.

20 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.
20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
2 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Students will be required to write a 3,000-word formative essay in the AT and one in the WT.
There will be an optional one-hour mock exam in ST.

• Aldrich, Richard J. GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain’s Most Secret Intelligence Agency. London: HarperPress, 2010.
• Andrew, Christopher. The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5. London: Allen Lane, 2009.
• Andrew, Christopher, and Vasili Mitrokhin. The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West. London: Penguin Press, 1999.
• Best, Antony. British Intelligence and the Japanese Challenge in Asia, 1914–1941. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002.
• Cormac, Rory. Disrupt and Deny: Spies, Special Forces and the Secret Pursuit of British Foreign Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
• Dylan, Huw. Defence Intelligence and the Cold War: Britain’s Joint Intelligence Bureau 1945–1964. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Gill, Peter. Policing Politics: Security Intelligence and the Liberal Democratic State. London: Frank Cass, 1994.
• Goodman, Michael S. The Official History of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Volume I: From the Approach of the Second World War to the Suez Crisis. London: Routledge, 2014.
• Hennessy, Peter. The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst, 1945–2010. London: Penguin, 2010.
• Herman, Michael. Intelligence Power in Peace and War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Jeffery, Keith. The Secret History of MI6, 1909–1949. London: Bloomsbury, 2010.
• Jones, Matthew. The Official History of the UK Strategic Nuclear Deterrent, Volume I: From the V-Bomber Era to the Arrival of Polaris, 1945–1964. London: Routledge, 2017.
• Lomas, Daniel. Intelligence, Security and the Attlee Governments, 1945–1951: An Uneasy Relationship? Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017.
• Moran, Christopher, and Christopher Murphy, eds. Intelligence Studies in Britain and the US: Historiography since 1945. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.
• Newbery, Samantha. Interrogation, Intelligence and Security: Controversial British Techniques. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015.
• Popplewell, Richard J. Intelligence and Imperial Defence: British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire, 1904–1924. London: Frank Cass, 1995.
• Walton, Calder. Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War and the Twilight of Empire. London: Harper, 2013.

Exam (75%), duration: 180 Minutes in the Spring exam period.

Presentation (25%).