Professor Sir Daivd Omand is a Cambridge University graduate in economics, has an honorary Doctorate from Birmingham University and has just completed a degree in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics with the Open University. He is a member of the editorial board of Intelligence and National Security. With Dr Michael Goodman of the Department he is responsible for delivering training to government intelligence analysts and lectures regularly to BA and MA level classes in intelligence studies.

Areas of expertise

• The development of national security strategy and counter-terrorism strategy
• Intelligence studies especially the processes of intelligence analysis and assessment and the relationship of the media and national intelligence
• The historical development of the UK intelligence community
• Developing the concepts of national resilience and crisis management
• Applying psychodynamic thinking to the management of change in organisations

Biography

Sir David Omand was the first UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator, responsible to the Prime Minister for the professional health of the intelligence community, national counter-terrorism strategy and “homeland security”. He served for seven years on the Joint Intelligence Committee. He was Permanent Secretary of the Home Office from 1997 to 2000, and before that Director of GCHQ (the UK Sigint Agency). Previously, in the Ministry of Defence as Deputy Under Secretary of State for Policy, he was particularly concerned with long term strategy, with the British military contribution in restoring peace in the former Yugoslavia and the recasting of British nuclear deterrence policy at the end of the Cold War. He was Principal Private Secretary to the Defence Secretary during the Falklands conflict, and served for three years in NATO Brussels as the UK Defence Counsellor. He has been a visiting Professor in the Department of War Studies since 2005-6. 

Recent Publications

Omand, D., Pythian M. ‘Ethics and Intelligence: A Debate’, International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, Vol 26, No. 1 2013, pp. 38-63.

 Omand, D., ‘The future of intelligence’ in Duyvesteyn I., de Jong B. and van Reijn J, (Ed.) The Future of Intelligence, London: Routledge, 2014, pp. 14-26.

Omand, D., ‘Is it time to Move Beyond the Intelligence Cycle: A UK Practicioner’s Perspective’ in Pythian M., (Ed.) ‘Understanding the Intelligence Cycle’ London: Routledge, 2014, pp.134-148.

Omand., D., ‘The Cycle of Intelligence’ in Dover, R., Goodman, M. and Hillebrand C. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Intelligence Studies, London: Routledge, 2014, pp 59-70.

Omand, D., ‘Understanding Baysian Thinking, Prior and Posterior Probabilities and Analysis of Competing Hypotheses in Intelligence Analysis’ in Lahneman W. (Ed.) Experiencing Intelligence Tradecraft: Simulations, Exercises, and Games, New York: Rowman and Littlefield and Madrid: Plaza y Valdes, 2014, pp.185-202.

Omand, D., Miller C. and Bartlett, J., 'Towards the Discipline of Social Media Intelligence', in Hobbs, C., Moran, M. and Salisbury D., Open Source Intelligence in the Twenty-First Century, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 24-43.