Simon Willmetts
@swillmetts.bsky.social
Cultural historian with an interest in secrecy, intelligence agencies, and their impact upon wider culture and society. I work at Leiden University, but my views here are my own.
Excited to announce my forthcoming collection on Spies, Culture and Society edited with Constant Hijzen. It develops ideas about the "cultural turn" in intelligence studies, bringing together leading scholars on intel + culture. More info to follow. Publication in early 2026!
May 20, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Excited to announce my forthcoming collection on Spies, Culture and Society edited with Constant Hijzen. It develops ideas about the "cultural turn" in intelligence studies, bringing together leading scholars on intel + culture. More info to follow. Publication in early 2026!
The obvious delusion of this statement aside, I’ve begun to notice Trump’s frequent use of the “going to” future tense, and this had me wondering why politicians use this particular construction, and whether it is an inherently deceptive communication style. So I asked ChatGPT:
April 3, 2025 at 10:14 PM
The obvious delusion of this statement aside, I’ve begun to notice Trump’s frequent use of the “going to” future tense, and this had me wondering why politicians use this particular construction, and whether it is an inherently deceptive communication style. So I asked ChatGPT:
This is how the money goes round…. Great infographic on how CIA distributed funds via front organizations:
March 13, 2025 at 7:25 PM
This is how the money goes round…. Great infographic on how CIA distributed funds via front organizations:
Possibly the best file name I’ve ever found in an archive:
March 12, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Possibly the best file name I’ve ever found in an archive:
From the archive: Truman’s Secretary of Defence James Forrestal: “The word ‘security’ ought to be stricken from the language and the word ‘risk’ substituted… The great danger in any country is for people to believe that there is anything absolute about security.”
February 19, 2025 at 4:29 PM
From the archive: Truman’s Secretary of Defence James Forrestal: “The word ‘security’ ought to be stricken from the language and the word ‘risk’ substituted… The great danger in any country is for people to believe that there is anything absolute about security.”
Aaaaah the difficulties of managing academic egos in the intelligence business….
February 18, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Aaaaah the difficulties of managing academic egos in the intelligence business….
General Donovan’s speech at the final gathering of OSS employees: “We have come to the end of an unusual experiment… to determine whether a group of Americans constituting a cross section of racial origins, of abilities, temperaments and talents could meet and risk an encounter with the… enemy.”
February 17, 2025 at 7:04 PM
General Donovan’s speech at the final gathering of OSS employees: “We have come to the end of an unusual experiment… to determine whether a group of Americans constituting a cross section of racial origins, of abilities, temperaments and talents could meet and risk an encounter with the… enemy.”
From the archive: A CIA button. Just remember to take it off when you go undercover….
February 17, 2025 at 4:20 PM
From the archive: A CIA button. Just remember to take it off when you go undercover….
1/4: New publication from me on how artificial intelligence will reshape the work of intelligence agencies, and transform our understanding in the process. A big shout out to the editors of this fantastic new collection that rethinks privacy in the 21st Century.
February 11, 2025 at 3:57 PM
1/4: New publication from me on how artificial intelligence will reshape the work of intelligence agencies, and transform our understanding in the process. A big shout out to the editors of this fantastic new collection that rethinks privacy in the 21st Century.
Great to see Elliot Higgins talking to our students at Leiden University!
February 6, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Great to see Elliot Higgins talking to our students at Leiden University!
Van Eyck’s Arnolfini portrait is a dead-ringer for Putin:
December 22, 2024 at 12:55 PM
Van Eyck’s Arnolfini portrait is a dead-ringer for Putin:
Documents I forgot to use: here managing editor at Time Magazine explains his objections to sending journalists’ dispatches directly to CIA. For context see my recent article on CIA & Time Magazine, which should have cited this but didn’t… academic.oup.com/dh/article/4...
December 12, 2024 at 1:54 PM
Documents I forgot to use: here managing editor at Time Magazine explains his objections to sending journalists’ dispatches directly to CIA. For context see my recent article on CIA & Time Magazine, which should have cited this but didn’t… academic.oup.com/dh/article/4...