Università Roma Tre

The course studies the topic of War in the Global World, focusing in particular on the history of intelligence processes, organizations and products from the 20th century to the present day. In the 20th century, information gathering and analysis represented a key component of the foreign policy process in many countries. This growing reliance on intelligence in making political choices was fueled by the two world wars and later the Cold War, as well as advances in technologies for use in espionage and encryption. The course will examine the emergence of modern “intelligence systems” within state architectures throughout the 20th century as well as major intelligence agencies and operations up to the 2020s, in Europe, the United States, and (to a lesser extent also in the Middle East and Asia). Additionally, students will explore the extent to which intelligence work has actually influenced the direction of foreign policy and the outcome of the world wars and the Cold War and the multipolar international system of recent decades.

Texts:

Michael Warner, The Rise and Fall of Intelligence (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2014).
Calder Walton, Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2023). 4