We are pleased to invite you to submit a paper abstract for the workshop ‘Legitimate spying? Challenging or supporting intelligence services in Europe’ at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, on 3-4 November 2025. Abstracts should be submitted before Monday 17 March 2025 to Eleni Braat (e.c.braat@uu.nl).

Why are some intelligence agencies in Europe associated with authoritarianism and corruption, while others are politically and societally legitimate? This workshop aims to explain these striking variations across European national contexts. It focuses on whether and how political and societal actors challenge or support the legitimacy of intelligence services. Public political claims by a wide variety of actors such as the media, public interest groups and social movements importantly define the public and political acceptance of one of the most hidden activities of the state. How do organised actors relate to the intelligence services, how do they get relevant information, and how and why do they frame intelligence in particular ways (e.g. scrutinising or heroic)? From the perspective of intelligence services, how and why do they engage in dialogue with politically involved actors, why do they refrain from doing so, and how does secrecy influence their efforts at transparency? 

Intelligence services are legitimate to the extent they reflect the interests and preferences of those subjected to it and there are mechanisms in place to hold it accountable. This is directly related to the beliefs individuals hold about the normative appropriateness of intelligence agencies as state organizations. As such, this workshop challenges the common focus on formal accountability mechanisms, such as intelligence oversight bodies, as the principal, rational-legal element of intelligence legitimacy. Instead, this workshop explores how civil society actors shape the legitimacy of intelligence services. It also expands the geographical scope of research on intelligence legitimacy, which has been primarily focused on the Anglo-Saxon context.

Examples of possible topics of research include: 

• Framing and narratives of intelligence services by various types of policy, political or societal actors, such as journalists, activists, legislators, publicly active academics and state bodies adjacent to the intelligence agencies.
• Types of public dialogue between intelligence agencies and these types of civil society actors.
• Legally required or pro-active transparency by intelligence services, such as the declassification of archives or public appearances of staff or management, and the ensuing public dialogue.
• The contribution of civil society actors to the legitimacy of intelligence services, and the motivations of civil society actors to either do or not do so.
• The role of civil society actors in addressing (past) abuses by intelligence services, such as during authoritarian rule.
• How civil society actors attempt to gain information on intelligence services.
• Different perceptions (by intelligence services or civil society actors) of what intelligence legitimacy consists of.
• Education on oversight and legitimacy, e.g. training of oversight committee members.
• Topics can cover any European national context or compare several ones. 

Aim and planning
The workshop on 3-4 November 2025 aims to lead to a special issue in a peer reviewed journal in the field of intelligence studies

October 2025: submission of draft articles (4000-7000 words)
November 2025: discussion of draft articles at workshop in Utrecht
March 2026: completion of articles (7000-8000 words)

Submission
Please submit your abstract (400 words max) and CV (2 pages max) to Eleni Braat (e.c.braat@uu.nl) by 17 March 2025. Successful applicants will be notified by 21 March. The selection of abstracts will be based on the clarity of the proposal, the intended use of empirical material, and the alignment with the theme of the call for papers.

Expenses
This workshop is part of the research project “Politics of state secrecy. The long shadow of authoritarianism on the legitimacy of state secrecy in Greece, France, and The Netherlands, 1945-2015”, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The funding covers travel and accommodation costs of participants. To be reimbursed participants are expected to travel by train on distances smaller than 700 km or 8 hours of travel.