International Conference: “Need to Know VI: Intelligence and Migration,” Karlskrona (Sweden), 17–18 November 2016

Stephen Marrin Discussion

International Conference: “Need to Know VI: Intelligence and Migration,” Karlskrona (Sweden), 17–18 November 2016.

https://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/821,International-ConferenceNeed-to-Know-VI-Intelligence-and-Migration-Karlskrona-Sw.html

Migration is an integral part of an increasingly globalized world. When large groups of people move from one country or region to another, however, they are usually viewed with great suspicion by the governments of both the home and host countries. This gives rise to a number of difficult questions: Are these migrants just seeking better jobs or business opportunities? Are they political refugees or victims of brutal regimes? Or are they are carrying a heavier load than just their baggage? Among the migrants or refugees, are there perhaps war criminals, insidious double agents, “illegal” spies, political extremists, or even future terrorists?

Violent conflicts from the home country can be carried out abroad and lead to violent acts, such as abductions or murder. The host country also often has a political interest in animating conflicts in the migrant’s home country. But the migrants constitute not only a potential threat, but also a natural cover for the various forms of intelligence, sabotage, and disinformation operations. This was certainly the case with East and Central European migrant groups in the West during the Cold War. Relative accessibility to related archival materials in almost all the countries of former communist bloc provides many cases which exemplify such phenomena. At the same time, the question of migrants and intelligence is not unique to the Cold War. The question existed before the Cold War and has only increased in its importance ever since.

The conference “Need to Know VI: Intelligence and Migration” is organized by the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, the Center for Cold War Studies of the University of Southern Denmark, the Swedish Naval Museum, and the Baltic Intelligence and Security Studies Association.

The venue of the conference is the Swedish Naval Museum in Karlskrona. The language of the conference is English.

All those interested are encouraged to participate. Conference participation is free of charge.

The "Need to Know" conferences were founded in 2011 and take place annually. The focus of the conferences is on foreign intelligence and they invite scholars of intelligence studies as well as former practitioners to an interdisciplinary discussion of historical, current, and mythological questions within the field. Intelligence studies have benefitted greatly from the opening of archives in Central Europe and it is the results of this research in particular which have been presented on at the conferences. The conferences have established themselves as an important meeting place for scholars from Europe, North America, Russia, and the Middle East.

Additional questions should be sent to: monika.giemela@ipn.gov.pl

Conference program

17 November

I PANEL – OPENING PANEL: INTELLIGENCE AND MIGRATIONS

Chair: Prof. Eric Kulavig (Center for Cold War Studies of the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)

  1. Prof. Thomas Wegener Friis (Center for Cold War Studies of the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark) – Migration and Intelligence
  2. Prof. Mark Kramer (Harvard University, USA)  – Forced Migration in East Central Europe through the Prism of Soviet and US Intelligence, 1944–1947
  3. Dr Władysław Bułhak (Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw, Poland) – Migration and Double Lives of Polish Communist “Illegals” in Sweden, Germany and Austria
  4. Prof. Kurt Jensen (Carleton University, Canada) – Security Vetting of Indochinese Refugees: 1975–1980

II PANEL – BALTIC AND MARITIME PANEL

Chair: Dr Andreas Linderoth (Swedish Naval Museum, Sweden)

  1. Dr Meelis Saueauk (Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, Estonia)  – Estonians in the Service at the Finnish Military Intelligence During the WWII
  2. Dr Keith Allen (University of Giessen, Germany) – Migrants and Security Vetting: Maritime Dimensions of Flight to West Germany During the Cold War
  3. Prof. Steven Czak (United States Air Force Academy, USA)  – AEBASIN/AEROOT: CIA Human Intelligence Operations in Estonia, 1950s
  4. Przemysław Gasztold-Seń (Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw, Poland)  – Polish Intelligence in Sweden
  5. Prof. Michael Fredholm (Independent Research Institute, Sweden) – Migrants in Uniform as Intelligence Assets. Polish and Soviet Naval Aviation and Air Force Defectors to Sweden during the Cold War

III PANEL – STASI AND BND PANEL

Chair: Dr Łukasz Kamiński (Institute of National Remembrance, Poland)

  1. Dr Bernd Schaefer (George Washington University/Woodrow Wilson International Center, USA) – A Common Anti-Communist Front? Western Intelligence Services and Eastern European Emigration: The Case of the CIA
  2. Prof. Wolfgang Krieger (University of Marburg, Germany) – The German-American Disputes Over the Debriefing of Refugees and Deserters from the Soviet-Dominated Parts of Europe
  3. Dr Andreas Hilger (University of Heidelberg, Germany)  – A common Anti-Communist Front? Western Intelligence Services and Eastern European Emigration: The Case of the BND
  4. Dr Paul Maddrell (Loughborough University, United Kingdom)  – Migration as Blessing and Curse: the Stasi and Migration from and to the German Democratic Republic (GDR), 1950–1989
  5. Dr Douglas Selvage (Stasi Records Agency, Germany)  – Emigration and Infiltration: The Stasi and “Enemy” Human-Rights Organizations in West Germany

18 November

IV PANEL – POLITICAL EMIGRATION PANEL

Chair: Dr Thomas Wegener Friis (Center for Cold War Studies of the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)

  1. Dr Florian Altenhöner (Independent Historian, Germany) – Intelligence and Russian Refugees in Berlin, 1919–1933
  2. Dr Sławomir Łukasiewicz (Institute of National Remembrance / John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)  – Intelligence Activities Conducted by Polish Cold War Émigrés of the 40s and 50s: Reconnaissance
  3. Dr Joanna Wojdon (University of Wroclaw, Poland)  – The New York City, the People’s Poland Intelligence Activities and the Polish Americans
  4. Daniela Richterova (University of Warwick, United Kingdom)  –  Spying on Terror: The Use of Migrants by Czechoslovak State Security in the Late Cold War
  5. Daniel Belousek (Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, Department of Veterans Affairs, Czech Republic)  – Czechoslovak Security Apparatus in the Fight Against Exile – the Operation Code Named "Delta“ in 1981

V PANEL – POLITICAL AND HUMAN CRISIS PANEL

Chair: Dr Władysław Bułhak (Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw, Poland)

  1. Prof. Michael Andregg  (University of St. Thomas, USA)  –  Intelligence and Migration: Cases from North America
  2. Dieter Bacher (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the Research on Consequences of Cold War, Austria)  – Threat and Opportunity: American and British Handling of the Refugee Crisis in the Post-War Austria 1954–1955 from the intelligence's point of view
  3. Dr Cees Wiebes (Netherlands)  – The Hungarian Uprising of 1956: 3000 Hungarian Refugees to the Netherland and the Response of the Dutch Intelligence Community. A Historical Appraisal
  4. Dr Magdolna Barath (Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security, Hungary)  – Hungarian refugees in Austria 1945–1950
  5. Dr Nadia Boyadjieva (Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, Bulgaria)  – The Expulsion of Bulgarian Turks and the Changing Contours of the Cold War in the 1980s

VI PANEL – INTELLIGENCE SECRETS, TECHNOLOGY & METHODOLOGY PANEL

Chair: Prof. Michael Fredholm (Independent Research Institute, Sweden)

  1. Dr Egemen Bezci (University of Nottingham, United Kingdom)  – Using Immigrants: Turkish Intelligence and Covert Ops
  2. Dr Mirosław Sikora (Institute of National Remembrance, KatowicePoland)  – Passport for Technology. Taking Advantage of Job-Migrations and Scholarship-Programs by the Polish intelligence During the Cold War
  3. Dr Paweł Sowiński (Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Science, Poland)  – Transnational Anticommunism: Intelligence and Eastern European Publishing Diaspora, 1956–1990
  4. Dr Michaela Toader (Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of Romanian Exile, Romania)  – Historical testimonies about the migration phenomenon in Romania on the Danube