Need to Know: Intelligence and Politics.
Western and Eastern Perspectives
International Conference
Brussels, 8–9 November 2011
One of the side-effects of the collapse of the communist system in Central/Eastern Europe was that hitherto highly classified data on key aspects of intelligence operations in some Warsaw Pact countries became relatively easily accessible. These data concerned such fundamental issues as: the impact of intelligence information on political decisions; international intelligence networks; data circulation and processing; goals, methods, and forms of intelligence work; information sources and intelligence operations; and intelligence as an organization.
The main aim of the conference was to confront the experience of scholars from Central/Eastern Europe, who analyze such materials on a daily basis, with research methodologies developed in Western Europe and the United States.
The conference focused on modern intelligence from the World War II to the War on Terror, however with a emphasis on the Cold War.
The conference took place on 8–9 November 2011. It accompanied the Polish presidency in the European Union.
The event was co-organized by: Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, Paweł Zalewski, MEP (European People’s Party) and Center for Cold War Studies of the University of Southern Denmark.