SCS 2847 - 002
Espionage and Secret Intelligence

SCS 2847 is an eight week history of secret intelligence in the modern era, running at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies. We survey the history of intelligence from the beginnings of the modern era to the present day, stopping out along the way to learn the practice, as well as the theory, of the Secret World.

This course is open to the general public. It is an introduction to the subject, for the intelligent and educated layperson, and no prior knowledge is assumed. I'd be thrilled to have you come along.

Read the official calendar entry, and sign up to take the class, >here<.

Course Description

In the twentieth century, the intelligence agencies of the world developed from small groups of amateur adventurers into globe-bestriding colossi whose influence steered the fates of wars and nations, ruined lives and forged heroes.  Yet, for all their power and influence and cost, these giants have remained almost invisible.  From their modern inception during the First World War to the War on Terror and the present day, they exist, for most of us, mainly as myth and rumour.  And no wonder!  Intelligence trades in the currency of lies and secrets, and to examine it is to gaze, as the phrase goes, into a wilderness of mirrors.  Join this course to crack open the secret world using the latest research from academics and intelligence experts around the world.

Lectures

(Sept 9) The Wilderness of Mirrors: an Introduction to Intelligence
In which we learn what ‘intelligence’ is, how intelligence works, and examine its pre-history to the twentieth century.

(Sept 16) The Gentleman Spy and Strange Birth of Modern Intelligence
In which it is the Age of the Gentleman Spy: eccentric amateurs, crooks and charlatans, inventors, academics, and officers of the crown create the modern Secret World amid war, revolution and chaos.

(Sept 23) Operation Ruthless: Intelligence and the Second World War
In which intelligence sits at the heart of the most terrible war of the modern age, and it gets much worse than anybody ever imagined.

(Sept 30) How to Be a Secret Agent: Tradecraft and Theory
In which we take a break from all the history to learn the practical essentials of spycraft – examining, as we do so, the dark arts of assassination, manipulation and budget appropriation.

(Oct 7) Cold War, Part 1: Going MAD
In which the Cold War begins: a major conflict fought, primarily, through covert means.  Intelligence agencies steal nuclear secrets and overthrow governments.  People use the term 'balance of terror' as an understatement.

(Oct 14) Cold War, Part 2: Welcome to the Jungle
In which proxy wars rage, empires decay, and people start to realise that intelligence agencies might be out of control.

(Oct 21) Part 1: High Tech Spies, Part 2: Improvised and Explosive
Part 1, in which people ask: can technology make clean the dirty world of spying?  Or at least keep the blood and mud at a sanitary distance?  Then, part 2, in which the aftermath of 9/11 answers that question with… well probably not.

(Oct 30) Lies, Myths and Mega-leaks
In which we wrap up the course with the present and future of intelligence.  How can the lessons of intelligence history guide us through a future in which the nature of threats, the power of governments and even the meaning of secrecy itself are in flux?