The Challenge of Counterintelligence Cultures

The Third Annual Herb Romerstein Memorial Propaganda and Deception Lecture: The Challenge of Counterintelligence Cultures: The Counterintelligence State from Tsarist Russia and the USSR, to Putin’s Russia, the PRC, Cuba & Venezuela, and Resurgent Militant Islam ------------ About the Lecture: This presentation will begin with the counterintelligence cum provocational style of the Tsarist Okhrana’s near classic penetration operations against its indigenous Marxist revolutionary terrorists; proceed through the long, ugly Soviet secret police period (originally annealed in struggling with Okhrana provocations); and explore the counterintelligence continuities and refinements of former KGB Lt. Col. and now Russian President Putin. Yesteryear’s Okhrana/KGB are today’s siloviki. We will then briefly probe the PRC counterintelligence state, whose pedigree long antedates that of Russia; then highlight client counterintelligence state systems such as Cuba and Venezuela; and close with a look at the unsurprising similarities between resurgent militant Islam and the Soviet/Russian counterintelligence state paradigm. ------------ About the Speaker: Dr. Jack Dziak is co-founder and President of Dziak Group, Inc., a consulting firm in the fields of intelligence, counterintelligence, counter-deception, national security affairs, and technology transfer. Dr. Dziak is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC. He has served over five decades as a company President and as a senior intelligence officer and senior executive in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and in the Defense Intelligence Agency, with long experience in counterintelligence, hostile deception, counter-deception, strategic intelligence, weapons proliferation intelligence, and intelligence education. Dr. Dziak received his honors Ph.D. in Russian history from Georgetown University, is a graduate of the National War College, and is a recipient of numerous defense and intelligence awards and citations. He was the co-developer and co-director of the Masters Degree Program in Strategic Intelligence at the Defense Intelligence School, the original predecessor to the current National Intelligence University. He has taught graduate courses at the Institute of World Politics, the National War College, Georgetown University, and The George Washington University; and lectures on intelligence, military affairs, and security issues throughout the US and abroad. Dr. Dziak is the author of the award-winning Chekisty: A History of the KGB, numerous other books, articles, and monographs, including The Military Relationship Between China and Russia, and Soviet Perceptions of Military Power. He currently is preparing a book on foreign counterintelligence systems, as well as other works on intelligence and national security issues.