CRASSH

This paper reflects upon research strategy and the practice of historical research in the archival records of the intelligence agencies of Britain, France and the United States. It does so within the context of a distinct roll-back to the initiatives toward greater accessibility and openness that gathered momentum beginning in the early 1970s in Britain and the United States. The focus is on the relationship between the questions the historian asks and the nature of the archival material she or he chooses to work with in order to try to answer these questions. This relationship is not straightforward in any research context. It may be especially vexed in the case of research into the role and activities of national intelligence services. The hope is to begin to explore the way different political cultures of secrecy and diverse official attitudes towards the documentary residue of the past throw up distinct challenges to the historian.

Peter Jackson is Reader in International History and Co-Director of the Centre of Intelligence and International Security Studies at the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University.  He is editor of Intelligence & National Security , the world's leading journal on the role of intelligence in international relations, and author and editor of numerous books and articles on intelligence and international relations.  His publications include France and the Nazi Menace (Oxford, 2001); Understanding Intelligence in the Twenty-First Century [co-editor] (London, 2004); Intelligence and Statecraft [co-editor] (Westport, 2005) and Exploring Intelligence Archives [co-editor].  He is also Chercheur Associé at the Centre d'Histoire de l'Europe du Vingtième Siècle at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris.