Paul McGarr
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paulmcgarr.bsky.social
Paul McGarr
@paulmcgarr.bsky.social
Intelligence History | Published first book on Cold War South Asia, published another on Spying in India, writing a third on Indira Gandhi & Margaret Thatcher
Visited Khan Market in Delhi today to call in at the institution that is Bahri Sons books. Great to see Spying in South Asia on the shelves. Better still, Bahri Sons had me sign copies that were sold straight on to customers! @warstudieskcl.bsky.social @kcsi.uk @universitypress.cambridge.org
November 4, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Learned a lot yesterday evening talking about challenges facing intelligence practitioners (state & private) to the @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social Business School Executive MBA class. Great to engage with highly impressive and vastly experienced business leaders. @kcsi.uk @warstudieskcl.bsky.social
September 14, 2025 at 9:23 AM
It’s early in the academic year, but I may have peaked. Yesterday, I led on the delivery of a new @warstudieskcl.bsky.social course, Strategic Intelligence for Senior Executives, alongside Emergent Risk International. Engaging F2F with global business leaders was informative & huge fun.
@kcsi.uk
September 11, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Received a nice surprise in the post today, the amazing new @georgetownup.bsky.social volume on Covert Action edited by the dream team of @magslong.bsky.social, Genevive Lester, @markstout.bsky.social, @dvanp.bsky.social & @rorycormac.bsky.social. Stellar contributors, though Chp 9 seems suspect😉
September 8, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Privileged today to be invited to address the current senior leadership cadre at India’s National Defence College on intel in South Asia & as a determinant in foreign policymaking. Thks Maj Gen Samath Nagar & Air Marshal Hardeep Bains (Commandant) for asking me to engage with the latest NDC cohort.
September 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Humbled by a very kind review of Spying in South Asia cambridge.org/9781108843676 in India's World. Delighted the review appeared in a publication that, under the expert leadership of Happymon Jacob &
Raja C Mohan, is becoming the go to outlet for expert commentary on India's international affairs.
July 13, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Very kind review of Spying in South Asia www.cambridge.org/9781108843676 by Sumit Ganguly in Journal of Cold War Studies. Humbled Sumit states, "McGarr masterfully traces the lineage of the IB & discusses in extensive detail how it...work[ed] with British intelligence after India’s independence." 🙏
July 2, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Thanks to Amb SD Muni for noting Spying in South Asia cambridge.org/9781108843676 in @hindustan-times.bsky.social re the Emergency & Indira Gandhi's complex relations with the CIA. For more on intelligence & South Asian statecraft👇
@warstudieskcl.bsky.social @kcsi.uk @universitypress.cambridge.org
June 23, 2025 at 2:13 PM
June 8, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Stimulating day listening (& talking) to a stellar group of academics, journalists, & practitioners on India’s place in the world. Thanks to Shruti Kapila and Tarika Khattar for hosting an amazing event @corpusCambridge.bsky.social Superb keynote on Indian diplomacy delivered by Shivshankar Menon
May 23, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Do join me and colleagues at IRSEM, Paris, on 27th May, at 5 pm UK Time (6 pm in Paris), to discuss intelligence beyond the Anglosphere. Registration link for Zoom 👇
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

@kcsi.uk @warstudieskcl.bsky.social @dsdkings.bsky.social @kingsindiainst.bsky.social
May 12, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Great to see India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, talk today on the economic opportunities & threats facing Delhi as the centenary of independence nears in 2047. Hope 🇬🇧 govt 👂🇮🇳 emphasis on ⬆️ student mobility in any FTA. @warstudieskcl.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social @kcsi.uk
April 8, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Great to see Alex Bomberg speak to @kcsi.uk tonight on commercial intelligence. Candid commentary on the challenges faced by private intelligence in a rapidly evolving global threat environment. Great questions from an engaged audience on this crucial & understudied field @warstudieskcl.bsky.social
March 17, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Great to see India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr S. Jaishankar, talk @chathamhouse.bsky.social Expertly chaired by @bronwenmaddox.bsky.social I discovered poor Dr Jaishankar has been gifted Spying in South Asia www.cambridge.org/9781108843676 I reassured him it makes a good door stop @kcsi.uk
March 5, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Delighted to sign on the dotted line with Georgetown University Press to write a new history of India’s foreign intelligence service, the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), with the fabulous Tanvi Pate. 👀 for the book coming out soon-ish! @kcsi.uk @warstudieskcl.bsky.social @kingsindiainst.bsky.social
March 4, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Great to engage with students & staff in the Politics and IR Dept @soasuni.bsky.social
today. Fantastic q’s on Spying in South Asia www.cambridge.org/9781108843676 & Global South intelligence. Thanks to Harisundar Kumar for arranging 🙏 @kcsi.uk @warstudieskcl.bsky.social @cambridgeup.bsky.social
February 19, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Thanks to Jill Kastner for a great talk at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social @warstudieskcl.bsky.social to Intelligence in War Studies students on Russian intelligence past, present, & future. If you haven’t read Jill’s wonderful new book, ‘A Measure Short of War’, what are you waiting for? @kcsi.uk
February 6, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Delighted that an Indian edition of Spying in South Asia is now available through Amazon.in at www.amazon.in/dp/1009644521 & at the competitive price of ₹1,195. Thanks to @cambridgeup.bsky.social for making the book accessible to readers in the subcontinent 🙏
@kcsi.uk @warstudieskcl.bsky.social
January 27, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Thanks to Ryan Shaffer for reviewing Spying in South Asia www.cambridge.org/9781108843676 in I & NS. It's pleasing (& a relief!) to hear that the book 'makes a significant contribution to the intelligence studies scholarship, shedding light on Cold War intelligence beyond Europe and North America.'
January 25, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Great to host @encyclopediageopolitica.com earlier this week on @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social @warstudieskcl.bsky.social Intelligence in War Studies course. Terrific talk on the evolution of the important but invariably misunderstood private intelligence world. @kcsi.uk @edinburghup.bsky.social
January 23, 2025 at 5:32 PM
And huge thanks to Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall for a wonderful talk on women in intelligence.
January 20, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Wonderful evening celebrating the award of the @kcsi.uk Polly Corrigan Book Prize 2024 to a very deserved winner, @sophieduroy.bsky.social Thanks to Intelligence and National Security and Women In Intelligence network for their support.
January 20, 2025 at 10:49 PM
The @kcsi.uk & Journal of Intelligence & National Security
2024 Polly Corrigan Book Prize Committee are pleased to award an honourable mention to two works by the late Prof Kristie Macrakis, 'Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach: America's Techno-Spy Empire' (GUP) & 'Espionage: A Concise History' (MIT).
December 18, 2024 at 6:21 PM
Delighted to announce @sophieduroy.bsky.social as winner of the @kcsi.uk 2024 Polly Corrigan Book Prize kcsi.uk/polly-corrig...
for the deeply researched & very timely work, 'The Regulation of Intelligence Activities under International Law' (Elgar Publishing, 2023). Congratulations Sophie 🎉
December 18, 2024 at 12:14 PM
Grateful to @drianhall.bsky.social for his generous review of Spying in South Asia www.cambridge.org/9781108843676 in the Journal of Development Studies. Pleased & humbled Ian was kind enough to cite the book as an "exemplar of good writing and good scholarship". @kcsi.uk @cambridgeup.bsky.social
December 10, 2024 at 6:33 PM