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Why start SIH?
Hear from our co-founders:
"We saw a real need for an organization for intelligence historians. The number of scholars in the field had grown dramatically and they really did not have a home. There were a few organizations in Europe, and one in Canada, but it focused primarily on contemporary intelligence problems. ISA also had the intelligence studies section, SHAFR and SMH had also always offered a home for intelligence scholars, but we believed there was a number of people who were falling between the cracks. I also believed that we needed a platform to advocate for intelligence history and to highlight the need for the declassification of documents. Without documents there will be no intelligence history."
- Sarah-Jane Corke
"Sarah-Jane Corke and I started NASIH in order to have a scholarly society specifically for intelligence historians. Many intelligence historians had no society that met their needs and some broad scholarly associations had communities of intelligence historians within them. However, we wanted a place devoted to this specific field where all of these scholars--who might not otherwise have met each other--could come together and exchange ideas."
- Mark Stout
Significant SIH Moments
Follow SIH's inspiring journey and celebrate our achievements
2025: Conference hosted at the International Spy Museum
2024: NASIH re-branded as SIH to reflect our growing global reach
2023: International Conference hosted at the University of Calgary
2022: First Virtual Conference; initiated Grad Writing Group
2020: Initiated Silent Game Book Club, Soviet Intelligence Research Group
2019: First Conference; initiated Brown Bags
2017: First Newsletter
2016: Sarah-Jane Corke and Mark Stout form NASIH
Co-Founders
Sarah-Jane Corke
Co-Founder
Sarah-Jane Corke, Ph.D., is the co-founder and past-president of the North American Society for Intelligence History (NASIH). She is an associate professor of history at the University of New Brunswick. Her first book US Covert Operations and Cold War Strategy: Truman, the CIA and Secret Warfare was published by Routledge in 2008. Her second book, an edited collection with Mark Stout, Adventures in Intelligence History: Stories from The International Spy Museum and Beyond is under contract and due to be published in late 2023. Her third monograph, The Nine Lives of Patricia and John Paton Davies was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant in 2022. Dr. Corke has published articles in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, Intelligence and National Security, the Journal of Strategic Studies, and the Journal of Conflict Studies.
Mark Stout
Co-Founder
Dr. Mark Stout was the founding President of the North American Society for Intelligence History. Dr. Stout has served in the US Intelligence Community and also headed the Master of Arts in Global Security Studies for Johns Hopkins University for several years. In addition, he is the former Historian of the International Spy Museum.
Former Board Members
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Sarah-Jane Corke
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John Ferris
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Kathy Olmsted
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Nick Reynolds
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Maria Robson
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David Sherman
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Mark Stout
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Calder Walton
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Hugh Wilford