[Scan-DC] Fwd: INVITATION: Revealing Secrets-An Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence

[Alan Henney]

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From: Alan Tidwell <canzps at georgetown.edu>
Date: Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 8:36 AM
Subject: INVITATION: Revealing Secrets-An Unofficial History of Australian
Signals Intelligence
To: <alan at henney.com>


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*Discover how Australia and the United States, two Five Eyes allies, have
worked closely on signals intelligence, 2pm, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024*

Australia’s defense and security relationship with the United States is
largely understood in terms of the 1951 ANZUS Alliance and the more recent
AUKUS agreement, the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the
United Kingdom, and the United States. Arguably, however, the most
important international agreement to which Australia is a party is the
UKUSA Sigint network agreement of 1947. Now known as the Five Eyes, this
agreement has been the basis for relationships of the utmost trust,
including the agreements on Australia’s North West Cape communications
station, and the joint facilities at Pine Gap

.

RSVP
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The challenge of reconciling Australia’s place in the world (its geography)
with its sense of identity (its history) is most clearly illustrated in the
secret Sigint partnerships. The inside story of these relationships is as
important as the external one. Australia’s unique geography means that its
foreign and defence policy do not always align completely with those of the
United States. But Australia’s geography offers advantages. In the Second
World War, the vagaries of high frequency communications meant that enemy
messages intercepted in Australia were unobtainable from sites in Great
Britain and North America. In the age of the Asian century, Australia
remains a ‘suitable piece of real estate’ for allied intelligence
endeavours. The specialisation and secrecy demanded by Sigint, in
particular, has forged an esprit de corps in Five Eyes relationships, where
shared language, values and wartime experience continue to resonate.

Speakers Professor John Blaxland and Clare Birgin offer their insights on
Australia's signals intelligence, drawing from their recently published
book, *Revealing Secrets: An unofficial history of Australian Signals
Intelligence & the Advent of Cyber*
<https://georgetown.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=feef254a7c1da5e1a67b00229&id=8c62db8c3d&e=a446788e95>,
published by UNSW Press.


*About the Speakers*


*John Blaxland* is Professor of International Security and Intelligence
Studies in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC), Coral Bell
School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University (ANU).
He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the
Royal Society of New South Wales. He was also formerly a military
intelligence officer, Head of SDSC and Director of the ANU Southeast Asia
Institute. He is the author and editor of several publications on military
history, intelligence and international security affairs.


*Clare Birgin *had a career in Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade spanning 30 years, with a focus on national security and
intelligence. She had postings in Warsaw, Moscow, Geneva, and Washington DC
as the Liaison Officer of the Office of National Assessments, followed by
postings as Ambassador in Hungary, Serbia, Kosovo, Romania, North Macedonia
and Montenegro. Subsequently she was a Visiting Fellow at the ANU before
joining John Blaxland’s history writing team. She has been awarded the
Polish Government’s Knight’s Cross Medal and the Bene Merito Medal by the
former Polish Foreign Minister.
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