Professor Philip Davies
Professor - Intelligence Studies / Director of BCISS

Research area(s)

• Organisation and governance of intelligence agencies and communities
• National intelligence cultures and traditions
• Intelligence professionalisation, professional practice and doctrine
• Intelligence, counter-intelligence and cyber- and protective-security policy

Research Interests

Most of my research activities focus on my role as Director of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies. I am, primarily, a political sociologist specialising in institution-building and organisational design of intelligence agencies and communities. I have an active interest and workstream on comparative intelligence studies, have conducted an intensive comparative study (funded by the Leverhulme Trust) of British and US national intelligence, and written area-studies oriented analyses of intelligence concepts and institutions in Malaysia and India, and collaborated with Kristian Gustafson on agenda-setting work intended to further extend comparative intelligence studies beyond the 'Anglosphere'. Early in the previous decade I was one of the founding architects of a theory of ‘intelligence culture’ as a counterpart to existing theories of strategic, organisational and political culture, and the comparative study of national intelligence systems. I have written on ‘intelligence theory’ and my most recent work is concerned chiefly with on the evolution of concepts, doctrine and professional practice in defence and military intelligence.

Project details

Raytheon UK Raytheon UK Workshop Series on Emergent Issues in 21st Century Intelligence£2,500 December 2011 – Philip H.J. Davies (PI)

European Union Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning programme Competitive in Intelligence in International Trade and Export (CITEX)Consortium Grant Value: €316,970 (c.£265,500); Brunel Component: €37,643 (c.£31,844.50) February 2011 - January 2012 Philip H.J. Davies (PI)

UK Ministry of Defence Joint Intelligence Doctrine and Joint Doctrine on Understanding£17,625 January – December 2010

ESRC Seminar Series Grant Intelligence and Government in the 21st Century£16,623 January 2008 - August 2009 Philip H.J. Davies (PI)