Ben de Jong

Publications and academic fields of interest

I am a lecturer at the department of Eastern European History and defended my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Amsterdam  in March 2004. It was entitled  Schild en zwaard van de Oktoberrevolutie. De memoires van Sovjet inlichtingenofficieren 1953-1991 ('Shield and sword of the October Revolution: The memoirs of Soviet intelligence officers 1953-1991'). The book is mainly on the memoirs of KGB officers, some of them defectors to the West, but memoirs published after 1991 in Russia are also dealt with. I also discuss memoirs by officers of the military intelligence service GRU in my dissertation, but there are only few of them. From my study of Soviet intelligence and KGB history I developed a keen interest in the workings of intelligence and security services generally. This topic is also part of the course on KGB history which I teach. My other main interest is politicaldevelopments in Eastern Europe after 1991, Russia in particular.

Publications of which I have been an editor:

- Ben de Jong, Wies Platje & Robert David Steele (eds.), Peacekeeping intelligence: Emerging concepts for the future. OSS International Press, Oakton, Virginia, 2003.

- Beatrice de Graaf, Ben de Jong & Wies Platje (eds.), Battleground Western Europe: Intelligence opeations in Germany and the Netherlands in the twentieth century. Het Spinhuis, Apeldoorn, 2007.

Other publications:

- Ben de Jong,   ‘The KGB in Eastern Europe during the Cold War: On Agents and Confidential Contacts,’ The Journal of Intelligence History 5, Summer 2005, pp. 83-101.

- Max Bader & Ben de Jong, ‘Geheime diensten in Rusland. Schild en zwaard van het regime-Poetin.’(Secret services in Russia: Shield and sword of the Putin regime) Internationale Spectator, vol. 60, no. 5, May 2006, pp. 260-265.

- Ben de Jong, 'De leugen regeert weer in Moskou,' (The lie rules supreme again in Moscow) Internationale Spectator, vol. 63, no. 2, February 2009, pp. 87-90.

- Ben de Jong, 'Hoe transparant is de AIVD?' (How transparant is the AIVD [Dutch security service]?) Liberaal Reveil,  September 2009, no. 3, pp. 133-139.

- Ben de Jong en Peter Keller, 'Contra-inlichtingen en contraspionage' (Counterintelligence and counterespionage) in: B.A. de Graaf a.o. (eds.) Inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten (Intelligence and security services), Kluwer, Alphen aan de Rijn, 2010, pp. 275-294.

- Ben de Jong, 'Politieke moorden in Rusland' (Political assassinations in Russia), Internationale Spectator, vol. 65, no. 2, February 2011, pp. 75-78.


Link to my listof publications in the Digital Academic Repository of the University of Amsterdam (UvA-DARE)

Other activities

I have been an active member of the Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association (NISA, see link below) from the moment it was established in 1991. Together with others, I organized several conferences on intelligence topics as well as courses on counterintelligence and related themes. I have given lectures on intelligence topics, present day Russian politics and related subjects. On the side, I developed a keen personal interest in military history and have visited the sites of many historical battlefields in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association (NISA)