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

[Andrew Clegg]

Thanks Alan. I wish this was being recorded or offered over zoom. It doesn’t appear so.

> On Feb 20, 2024, at 8:26 PM, Alan Henney <alan at henney.com> wrote:
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> 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>
>
>
> View this email in your browser
> <https://mailchi.mp/georgetown/invitation-revealing-secrets-an-unofficial-history-of-australian-signals-intelligence?e=a446788e95>
>
> *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
> <https://georgetown.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=feef254a7c1da5e1a67b00229&id=6e6c60ee17&e=a446788e95>
>
> 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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