Frankfurt am Main
Fr. 20.06.2008, 19:00
Vortrag
Intelligence and Counter-terrorism
Britain in Northern Ireland and Britain Against Radical Islam
Forum der Anna-Schmidt-Schule, Hauptgebäude 2. Stock
Fellnerstraße 1
60322 Frankfurt am Main
Hessen
Beschreibung:
Dr. Paul Maddrell
Lecturer in Intelligence and Strategic Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, International Politics Department
Dr Paul Maddrell is Lecturer in International History at Aberystwyth University, Wales, Great Britain, where he teaches courses on the history of Communism, the foreign policy of the two German states during the Cold War, and the history of intelligence and security. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut of the Free University of Berlin. He has published Spying on Science: Western Intelligence in Divided Germany, 1945-1961 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), as well as articles and book chapters on the history of intelligence and German history.
Intelligence and Counter-terrorism: Britain in Northern Ireland and Britain Against Radical Islam
This lecture examines how the British police and security services sought to obtain intelligence on the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the thirty years of its campaign of terror violence (1969-1998). It examines how good was the forewarning they managed to obtain of IRA attacks; what sources they recruited; and how they recruited them. It sheds light on the difficulties and particular characteristics of counter-terrorism intelligence. It shows that the British security services and police played a significant and constructive role in bringing the IRA’s terrorism to an end. However, their operations were also brutal, cynical, very manipulative of people and, to some extent, illegal. The lecture then examines whether Islamist terrorism represents a similar or different challenge. Lastly, it considers whether the British security services and police will act similarly against it and whether they can hope to achieve the same degree of success.
