To round out my posting of syllabi I've been putting together, here is one for an undergraduate lecture course on the History of Espionage in the 20th century. It's appropriate for a variety of possible programs: US and the world, Europe and the world, global history, etc.
The "open-source intelligence" assignment is one I think would be very effective:
Open-source intelligence assignment: As we will be discussing,
often times the most reliable sources available to intelligence agencies are
the same ones available to the public: newspapers, Internet searches,
government documents, court records, etc. Given the advances in information
technology and social norms over the past few decades, dealing with too much
information (some of it non-obviously incorrect) is one of the biggest
challenges intelligence agencies (and historians, and most researchers) face.
In this assignment, you will
pretend to be an investigator tasked with finding out information about you. Use
Internet searches and any other publicly-available sources to write out a full
profile. Try to preserve the illusion that you're starting from nothing but
your full name and current address. It's okay (even expected) that your final
report will have false information in it, as long as you document where you got
this information and why you think it applies. For this assignment, you won't
be required to seek out any sources that cost money, require travel, or involve
actually interviewing/questioning people, but you should include a description
of what steps you would take for further information. Remember that it's important
to be thorough in documenting why you
come to the conclusions you do.
The dossier about yourself should
be at least two pages long (double-spaced), but can be longer. In addition, you must write at least
one page of reflection about the process. Things you can consider in this
reflection: are you comfortable with the information that is available about
you? Is your Internet presence an accurate representation of who you are? What
amount of control do you feel you have over what conclusions people investigating
you would draw?
I'm still on the fence about how (or whether) to include the extra-credit section:
OPTIONAL extra credit assignment: You
can get team up with someone and investigate one another, writing up a dossier.
After your investigations, you will exchange dossiers and see what the other
person got right and got wrong. You would then write at least one page about
reflection about this assignment. The point of this assignment is to see what
information is out there that someone can find without your own insider
knowledge/bias, and to think through how much control you have over this
information.
NOTE: When investigating someone
else for the assignment, it's absolutely vital to respect boundaries, to ignore
any particular information or topics that the person requests, and otherwise to
avoid going too far. In theory this information is publicly available, but
there's a real difference between information existing and information being
known.
In principle I like that assignment better than the main one. I already know whether a website refers to the correct Doug O'Reagan (a fairly uncommon name), so it's hard to really put myself in the shoes of someone who might be chasing down false leads, coming to incorrect conclusions, guessing at others. Having someone else take a stab at it makes that clear in a new way. Anyone with something they really want to keep private/unknown can simply opt not to do the assignment, which would be for a small amount of extra credit. Even someone not opting to do the assignment could benefit from having really thought through what's out there, and how much/little control we have over our "virtual self."
On the other hand, I could imagine it going wrong if someone ignores the explicit warning about not going too far. I don't want to incentivize any stalking or similar behavior.
One alternative is to have students investigate me, or a public figure like the university president, a congressman, etc., but then you lose the reflexive part of the assignment (what will people get wrong about
me if they're using these types of resources, such as future employers?). What information does the NSA have about
me, and is that the same thing as the government
knowing this information, in a meaningful sense?
I'd be delighted to hear any feedback. It's something I'll certainly mull over before teaching this as-yet-hypothetical course.
_______________________________
PDF link
History XXX – History
of Espionage in the 20th Century
Spring 2016 | 3
credits
Instructor:
Douglas
Michael O'Reagan
[Email]
Office
hours: [Office hours]
by appointment, including via
Skype/Google Hangouts/email
Lectures/Discussions:
Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30-2pm, South 130
The United States intelligence community is a regular figure
in news stories today, including in Edward Snowden's revelations about the
National Security Agency's data collections, rendition and torture by the Central
Intelligence Agency, cyberespionage by foreign powers, and worry about how to
stop terrorist individuals, groups, and states. Yet as recently as the Second
World War, the United States did not even have a permanent, civilian
intelligence agency, much less the 17 separate agencies that exist (or
sometimes compete) today.
This course addresses the history of espionage in world
affairs over the twentieth century, emphasizing American and European
(including Russian) history. Questions we will be returning to throughout the
course include: What role is there for secret intelligence in a democracy
founded on transparency? How can and should we balance privacy and security
concerns? How have different nations' institutions and values shaped their use
of espionage?
Course Requirements:
Open-source intelligence assignment: As we will be discussing,
often times the most reliable sources available to intelligence agencies are
the same ones available to the public: newspapers, Internet searches,
government documents, court records, etc. Given the advances in information
technology and social norms over the past few decades, dealing with too much
information (some of it non-obviously incorrect) is one of the biggest
challenges intelligence agencies (and historians, and most researchers) face.
In this assignment, you will
pretend to be an investigator tasked with finding out information about you. Use
Internet searches and any other publicly-available sources to write out a full
profile. Try to preserve the illusion that you're starting from nothing but
your full name and current address. It's okay (even expected) that your final
report will have false information in it, as long as you document where you got
this information and why you think it applies. For this assignment, you won't
be required to seek out any sources that cost money, require travel, or involve
actually interviewing/questioning people, but you should include a description
of what steps you would take for further information. Remember that it's important
to be thorough in documenting why you
come to the conclusions you do.
The dossier about yourself should
be at least two pages long (double-spaced), but can be longer. In addition, you must write at least
one page of reflection about the process. Things you can consider in this
reflection: are you comfortable with the information that is available about
you? Is your Internet presence an accurate representation of who you are? What
amount of control do you feel you have over what conclusions people investigating
you would draw?
OPTIONAL extra credit assignment: You
can get team up with someone and investigate one another, writing up a dossier.
After your investigations, you will exchange dossiers and see what the other
person got right and got wrong. You would then write at least one page about
reflection about this assignment. The point of this assignment is to see what
information is out there that someone can find without your own insider
knowledge/bias, and to think through how much control you have over this
information.
NOTE: When investigating someone
else for the assignment, it's absolutely vital to respect boundaries, to ignore
any particular information or topics that the person requests, and otherwise to
avoid going too far. In theory this information is publicly available, but
there's a real difference between information existing and information being
known.
Lateness policy: All assignments must
be turned in by 12pm on their due-date. Any assignments submitted late will lose
2/3 of a grade per day (for example, a B+ becomes a B-, or a B becomes a C+).
In exceptional, rare circumstances,
you can pre-arrange an extension with
me.
Midterm/Final exams - Exams will consist of two sections. In the
first section, you will be given a number of key terms or names, and your job
will be to define and explain the significance of several of the options,
within about 3-5 sentences each. The second section will be a longer essay (or
essays). For these essays, you will draw upon lectures, readings, and
discussions.
Participation – This includes completing the week's readings in advance, and being ready to discuss
them with the rest of the class.
Grading:
Class Participation (40%)
OSINT investigation paper (10%)
Midterm exam (20%)
Research paper (30%)
Required Texts:
·
Christopher Andrew, For the President's Eyes Only: Secret
Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush
Recommended Texts:
This class will
assume a basic knowledge of American, European, and to some degree world
history over the 20th century. Since many students might feel
themselves to be lacking in this area, the following texts are suggestions for
helping keep pace and fill in background knowledge. I encourage you to ask
questions when you don't know something, but these readings (and even
Wikipedia) can also often help.
·
Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945
– very long, but excellent
·
Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century –
shorter, but also very well written
·
William Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America Since World
War II.
·
Ellen Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History With
Documents
In addition, the
following books are excellent supplements to course information we will be
discussing (and are a very short and incomplete list. I'd be happy to provide
more recommendations for specific topics):
·
Bamford, The Shadow Factory:
The NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America
·
Bamford, Body of Secrets:
Anatomy of Ultra-Secret National Security Agency
·
Fursenko and Naftali, One
Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy, 1958-1964
·
Haynes and Klehr, Spies: The
Rise and Fall of the KGB in America
·
Haynes
and Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet
Espionage in America
·
Kohnson, The Lavender Scare:
The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government
(2013).
·
Richelson,
A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the
Twentieth Century.
·
Weinstein and Vassiliev, The
Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America: The Stalin Era
Course Readings and Schedule:
|
Week
|
Date
|
Lectures
|
|
1
|
12-Jan
|
Introduction: Intelligence and Policy
Intro
|
|
14-Jan
|
US through 20th
C
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 1-29
·
Aldrich and Andrew, Secret
Intelligence: A Reader, Ch. 1-2 (p.1-19) (on Blackboard)
|
|
2
|
19-Jan
|
World War I
Europe through 20th C
|
|
21-Jan
|
WWI
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 30-74
|
|
3
|
26-Jan
|
The Interwar Years: Misunderstanding
Hitler
Interwar:
Misunderstanding Hitler
|
|
28-Jan
|
WWII lead-in,
Pearl Harbor
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 75-122
|
|
4
|
2-Feb
|
World War II
The Western
Front
|
|
4-Feb
|
The Eastern
Front
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 123-148
|
|
5
|
9-Feb
|
The Early Postwar
Searching for
German Sci/tech
|
|
11-Feb
|
The CIA and
NSA: Origins and early history
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 149-198
·
NSC
68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, April 14,
1950.
|
|
6
|
16-Feb
|
Soviet Intelligence Abroad
Early Soviet intelligence
successes, communism as a world philosophy
|
|
18-Feb
|
Atomic spies,
KGB rings in the US
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew and Mitrokhin, The
Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, p.1-22 (on Blackboard)
·
Usdin, "The Rosenberg Ring Revealed: Industrial-Scale
Conventional and Nuclear Espionage," Journal
of Cold War Studies, Vol. 11, No. 3 (2009): 91-143.
(http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cws/summary/v011/11.3.usdin.html)
|
|
7
|
23-Feb
|
Paranoia, Witch Hunts, and Witches
McCarthy,
Lavender scare, FBI expands
|
|
25-Feb
|
MIDTERM
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 199-256
·
Film: Good Night and Good
Luck
|
|
8
|
1-Mar
|
The Politics of Fear
Missile Gap,
Bomber gap
|
|
3-Mar
|
U2, spy planes,
TECHINT vs HUMINT
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 257-306
·
Philip Taubman, Secret
Empires, p.xi-xvi, 3-34 (on Blackboard)
|
|
9
|
8-Mar
|
American "Secret" Operations
Abroad
US in Latin
America
|
|
10-Mar
|
US in East Asia
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 307-349
·
Len Scott, "Espionage and the
Cold War: Oleg Penkovsky and the Cuban Missile Crisis," Intelligence
and National Security Volume 14, Number 3 (1999): 23-47. PDF
|
|
10
|
15-Mar
|
Spring Break
|
|
17-Mar
|
|
|
|
11
|
22-Mar
|
KGB and GRU: Soviet Intelligence and
State Terror
The KGB
|
|
24-Mar
|
Stasi and other
East Bloc nations
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Naimark, "To Know Everything
and to Report Everything Worth Knowing‘: Building the East German Police
State, 1945-1949," Cold War International History Project, Working Paper
#10, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1992, available online
at: www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/ACFB6.pdf
|
|
12
|
29-Mar
|
Cold War Espionage
Berlin
|
|
31-Mar
|
Mind Control,
MKULTRA, LSD
|
|
|
Readings:
·
John Le Carre, The Spy Who
Came In from the Cold
|
|
13
|
5-Apr
|
Secret Intelligence, Open Society?
Church
Commission, Vietnam, Watergate
|
|
7-Apr
|
Collapse of the
Soviet Union
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 350-424
|
|
14
|
12-Apr
|
Brave New World
End of the Cold
War? Top Secret America
|
|
14-Apr
|
9/11 and Terrorism
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Andrew 425-537
·
9/11 Commission Report (Final
report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United
States), July 2004 (http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/index.htm)
o
Ch. 11 (Foresight and Hindsight)
|
|
15
|
19-Apr
|
Evolving Threats
Snowden and the
NSA
|
|
21-Apr
|
Corporate
espionage and cybercrime
|
|
|
Readings:
·
Kristie
Macrakis "Technophilic Hubris and Espionage Styles during the Cold War,"
Isis, Vol. 101, No. 2 (2010):
378-85. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/653104)
|
|
16
|
26-Apr
|
Reflection and Wrap-up
Reflection: What
Role for Espionage in an Open Society?
|
|
28-Apr
|
Wrap-up and
review
|
|
|
Readings:
·
2010 Washington Post articles: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america
|
