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The Foreign Office ‘Thought Police’: Foreign Office Security, the Security Department and the ‘Missing Diplomats’, 1940 – 1952 (2023)
Journal Article
Murphy, C. J., & Lomas, D. (2023). The Foreign Office ‘Thought Police’: Foreign Office Security, the Security Department and the ‘Missing Diplomats’, 1940 – 1952. Diplomacy and Statecraft, 34(3), 433-463. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2023.2239638

The protection of diplomats, embassies and sensitive information has always been an important aspect of diplomacy. Today, security is an accepted norm of day-to-day diplomatic work, yet the importance of security in the UK Foreign Office was not al... Read More about The Foreign Office ‘Thought Police’: Foreign Office Security, the Security Department and the ‘Missing Diplomats’, 1940 – 1952.

#ForgetJamesBond : diversity, inclusion and the UK’s intelligence agencies (2021)
Journal Article
Lomas, D. (2021). #ForgetJamesBond : diversity, inclusion and the UK’s intelligence agencies. Intelligence and National Security, 36(7), 995-1017. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2021.1938370

Diversity and inclusivity remain top priorities for UK intelligence, having been much maligned for the largely white, male stereotype. The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) has published a number of reports suggesting that eve... Read More about #ForgetJamesBond : diversity, inclusion and the UK’s intelligence agencies.

Intelligence for security (2021)
Book Chapter
Lomas, D. (2021). Intelligence for security. In A. Masys (Ed.), Handbook of Security Science (1-17). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51761-2_38-1

The use of intelligence by states to improve decision making and per se national security has been commonplace. Intelligence – the collection, processing, analysis and sharing of information – has been seen as a state-based process, ensuring that dec... Read More about Intelligence for security.

Diplomacy and intelligence (2021)
Book Chapter
Lomas, D. (2021). Diplomacy and intelligence. In J. Spence, C. Yorke, & A. Masser (Eds.), New perspectives on diplomacy : a new theory and practice of diplomacy (55-76). I.B. Tauris

Party politics and intelligence : the Labour Party, British intelligence and oversight, 1979-1994 (2021)
Journal Article
Lomas, D. (2021). Party politics and intelligence : the Labour Party, British intelligence and oversight, 1979-1994. Intelligence and National Security, 36(3), 410-430. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2021.1874102

For much of the 20th Century, intelligence and security was a taboo subject for Parliamentarians. While Labour backbenchers had suspicions of the secret state, there was a long-held bipartisan consensus that debates on intelligence were ‘dangerous an... Read More about Party politics and intelligence : the Labour Party, British intelligence and oversight, 1979-1994.

Security, scandal and the security commission report, 1981 (2020)
Journal Article
Lomas, D. (2020). Security, scandal and the security commission report, 1981. Intelligence and National Security, 35(5), 734-750. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2020.1740387

This research note introduces the December 1981 report of the Security Commission. This report was never released with the main conclusions forming the basis of a statement by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, published in May 1982. But the 1981 repo... Read More about Security, scandal and the security commission report, 1981.

‘Hello, world’ : GCHQ, Twitter and social media engagement (2020)
Journal Article
McLoughlin, L., Ward, S., & Lomas, D. (2020). ‘Hello, world’ : GCHQ, Twitter and social media engagement. Intelligence and National Security, 35(2), 233-251. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2020.1713434

In May 2016, Britain’s signals intelligence agency the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) joined the social media platform Twitter with the message ‘Hello, world’. For an agency once seen as the UK’s ‘most secret’, GCHQ’s moved to social m... Read More about ‘Hello, world’ : GCHQ, Twitter and social media engagement.

Facing the dictators : Anthony Eden, the Foreign Office and British Intelligence, 1935 – 1945 (2019)
Journal Article
Lomas, D. (2020). Facing the dictators : Anthony Eden, the Foreign Office and British Intelligence, 1935 – 1945. International History Review, 42(4), 794-812. https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2019.1650092

This article uses the inter-war and wartime career of Anthony Eden, as a vehicle to understand the little understood relationship between secret intelligence, British Foreign Secretaries and the Foreign Office. While secret intelligence is no longer... Read More about Facing the dictators : Anthony Eden, the Foreign Office and British Intelligence, 1935 – 1945.

“Crocodiles in the corridors” : security vetting, race and Whitehall, 1945 – 1968 (2019)
Journal Article
Lomas, D. (2021). “Crocodiles in the corridors” : security vetting, race and Whitehall, 1945 – 1968. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 49(1), 148-177. https://doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2019.1648231

In July 2018, the UK’s Intelligence & Security Committee issued a report into diversity and inclusion across the intelligence and security community. The picture the report painted was far from satisfactory; in short, Britain’s intelligence agencies... Read More about “Crocodiles in the corridors” : security vetting, race and Whitehall, 1945 – 1968.

Intelligence, security and the Attlee governments, 1945–51 : an uneasy relationship? (2016)
Book
Lomas, D. (2016). Intelligence, security and the Attlee governments, 1945–51 : an uneasy relationship?. Manchester: Manchester University Press

Drawing on recently released documents and private papers, this is the first book-length study to examine the intimate relationship between the Attlee government and Britain's intelligence and security services at the start of the Cold War. Often pra... Read More about Intelligence, security and the Attlee governments, 1945–51 : an uneasy relationship?.

‘… the defence of the realm and nothing else’ : Sir Findlater Stewart, Labour Ministers and the Security Service (2014)
Journal Article
Lomas, D. (2015). ‘… the defence of the realm and nothing else’ : Sir Findlater Stewart, Labour Ministers and the Security Service. Intelligence and National Security, 30(6), 793-816. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2014.900268

In May 2013, a report on the British Security Service (MI5) by Sir Samuel Findlater Stewart was released by the Cabinet Office. Dated November 1945, the report on the future organization and activities of MI5 was significant in that it defined the Se... Read More about ‘… the defence of the realm and nothing else’ : Sir Findlater Stewart, Labour Ministers and the Security Service.

Return to Neverland? Freedom of information and the history of British intelligence (2014)
Journal Article
Murphy, C., & Lomas, D. (2014). Return to Neverland? Freedom of information and the history of British intelligence. Historical Journal, 57(01), 273-287. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X13000423

This article considers the use of the UK Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in order to explore the history of British intelligence. While the intelligence and security agencies are themselves exempt from the Act, releasing only such archival material... Read More about Return to Neverland? Freedom of information and the history of British intelligence.

Labour ministers, intelligence and domestic anti-Communism, 1945–1951 (2013)
Journal Article
Lomas, D. (2013). Labour ministers, intelligence and domestic anti-Communism, 1945–1951. Journal of Intelligence History, 12(2), 113-133

Relations between the post-war Labour Government and Britain's Security Service (MI5) have often been seen as strained. Utilising recently released material, the article argues that, rather than view the Service with disdain, Labour Ministers saw MI5... Read More about Labour ministers, intelligence and domestic anti-Communism, 1945–1951.

A tale of torture? Alexander Scotland, the London Cage and post-war British secrecy (2013)
Book Chapter
Lomas, D. (2013). A tale of torture? Alexander Scotland, the London Cage and post-war British secrecy. In C. Moran, & C. Murphy (Eds.), Intelligence Studies in Britain and the US : historiography since 1945 (251-262). Edinburgh University Press

The immediate post-war period saw the publication of a number of secret service accounts recounting wartime exploits, giving the impression that, with the end of hostilities, these could now be revealed. In fact, as has been clearly demonstrated by R... Read More about A tale of torture? Alexander Scotland, the London Cage and post-war British secrecy.