13th Annual Conference of the International Intelligence History Association (IIHA/AGN)
Weimar / Germany on 20-22 April 2007
Organizers : Professor Wolfgang Krieger (Universität Marburg / Germany) and Professor Heiner Timmermann (Akademie Rosenhof / Weimar)
Contacts : Cet e-mail est protégé contre les robots collecteurs de mails, votre navigateur doit accepter le Javascript pour le voir
www.intelligence-history.org

It has often been said that intelligence services helped keep the peace during the cold war. But there can be no doubt that in many instances intelligence activities led to or intensified international conflict. At least two large-scale wars, in Vietnam and in Afghanistan, resulted directly from massive intelligence failures (and eventually led to further such failures). Throughout the cold war intelligence clashes produced diplomatic or political incidents, such as expelling embassy staff or formal protests against abductions or telephone wiretappings.

Intelligence clashes worsened relations, at least temporarily, within each bloc, between the two blocs and with countries outside the blocs. While a fair number of such clashes have already been studied, including naval incidents and incidents relating to espionage overflights, much research is still required before we understand more thoroughly their significance in cold war history.