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Richard J. Aldrich

Professor of International Security, FRHistS

Email: r dot j dot aldrich at warwick dot ac dot uk
Tel: 02476 523523
Room: E1.11

Advice and Feedback

14.00 Tuesday

13.00 Wednesday

 

Profile

Richard J. Aldrich is a Professor of International Security at the University of Warwick. In 2019 he completed a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship to investigate the "nature of secrecy" in a world characterised by increasing technology and transparency. He has recently been involved in the H2020 DigiGen project and an EU Erasmus project on Cyberdiplomacy.

His main research interests lie in the area of intelligence and security communities. His most recent research - conducted jointly with JD Work - has focused on 'Project Spaceman' and looks at pioneering British efforts in the area of computer security and automatic data processing in the 1970s. A related paper was recently published in Intelligence and National Security. 

Previously he led a large AHRC project entitled "The Central Intelligence Agency and the Contested Record of US Foreign Policy" which received follow on funding. This involved a team of eight scholars at the universities of Nottingham and Warwick. Some of the work of the team was published in a special edition of the journal History. Following on from this project he joined with his colleague Chris Moran to write an essay on Donald Trump and his relationship with the CIA for Foreign Affairs.

Research interests

Aldrich maintains a broad range of interests related to both intelligence and digital politics. He recently completed a new Centenary edition of his study of GCHQ which was published by Collins and was nominated for the National Cyber Book award in 2023.

He advises a number of governments on issues of records management, declassification and corporate memory. He assisted the German Bundestag inquiry into the NSA "Snowden" affair.

He was co-editor of the journal Intelligence and National Security for eight years and now co-edits the companion book series Studies in Intelligence with Christopher Andrew and Claudia Hillebrand. He is also a co-editor of the Edinburgh University Press series Intelligence, Surveillance and Secret Warfare.

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Teaching

Richard J Aldrich usually teaches on some of the following modules:

Nine Ideas of International Security: PO135 - BA Year 1 - term one.

Vigilant State: The Politics of Intelligence: PO382 - BA Year 3 - both terms. Tutors who have helped to develop and improve this module include Rory Cormac, Melina Dobson, Jason Dymydiuk, Jules Gaspard, Melina Dobson, Sarah Mainwaring, Shannon Mathieu, Ronan Mainprize, Dina Rezk, Daniela Richterova and Simon Willmetts.

Cybersecurity: War, Spies, Crime and Protest on the Internet PO9E6-20 MA-term two

Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency: From Mao to the Ukraine PO972 - MA - term two