Programme overview

Did Biden's the public use of intelligence undermine Putin's attack on the Ukraine?

Does spying make the international system safer or more unstable?

Should terrorist suspects be tortured to obtain vital information?

When is it right for a President or Prime Minister to order a drone strike?

Can GCHQ read my emails and is Google to blame?

Why does the UN have its own intelligence service?

Can I trust my new toaster?

Open societies are increasingly defended by secret means, so intelligence is now a large and controversial part of government. It is often on the front page or our newspapers.

This module seeks to situate secret intelligence in a broad governmental context, viewing this as an aspect of international statecraft, or as a series of practices that raise constitutional problems and issues of civil rights.

Accordingly, this module is as much about how policy-makers make use - or fail to make use - of intelligence, and how secret services might be regulated within a constitutional framework, as about the practices of the secret service itself.