Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Chair of Early Modern European History

The contributions to the special issue "Case Studies in Early Modern European Intelligence" of the Journal of Intelligence History (2022, vol. 21, no. 3) guest-edited by Tobias Graf (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) und Charlotte Backerra (University of Göttingen) call into question dominant assumptions about early modern intelligence by placing this sphere into the broader context of government practices. In addition, the articles discuss the specific challenges to the study of early modern intelligence to show how different types of sources can be used to improve our understanding of intelligence organizations and their activities. The three case studies by Ioanna Iordanou (on Venetian intelligence), Matthias Pohlig (on the use and utility of intelligence using the example of English intelligence during the War of the Spanish Succession) and Tobias Graf (on the intelligence gathering by Austrian-Habsburg diplomats in Istanbul in the late sixteenth century) are available as Open Access publications. The issue's introduction by Tobias Graf and Charlotte Backerra calls for the intensification of scholarly exchange across traditional periodization schemes and highlights the potential of early modern history for intelligence history more generally.