Dr. Brian Crim, professor of history and chair of the University of Lynchburg’s history department, presented his research on the author John le Carré at the Society for Intelligence History Annual Conference, held Feb. 6-8 in Washington, D.C.

Held at the International Spy Museum, the conference was attended by intelligence scholars from countries around the globe, including Israel, China, Hungary, Britain, and Germany.

“Also present were journalists from major newspapers hoping to get a sense of the future of intelligence in an uncertain time,” Crim said. “And finally, there were quite a few intelligence professionals from the CIA, FBI, and the military.”

The three-day event included numerous roundtable discussions. “The most remarkable session was a roundtable composed of the first four directors of national intelligence, an office created in 2006,” Crim said.

“To have those big names, with decades of experience from the George W. Bush administration to Barack Obama’s, was amazing to witness. To say they fear for the future of professional intelligence is an understatement.” 

During a roundtable titled “Culture in Intelligence History,” Crim presented his research on le Carré. Crim is currently researching the author — known for his many espionage novels — for a forthcoming book, “In the Shadows: Spy Fiction after 9/11.”

“Throughout the conference his name kept coming up, which proved my point that spy facts and spy fiction are almost indistinguishable to the public,” Crim said. “I had access to [his] papers at Oxford University, which granted real insight into his perspective after 9/11 and the War on Terror.”

For Crim, the highlight of the conference was meeting someone with a direct connection to the famous spy novelist’s work. “I met Washington Post reporter David Hoffmann, who was stationed in Moscow during the 1980s,” Crim said.

“John le Carré was very interested in his work because Hoffmann knew a Soviet scientist who was an expert in nuclear weapons. The scientist was very eccentric, as you might say, and became the model for the character Goethe in ‘The Russia House.’

“Hoffmann later showed up to my panel, which was kind of nerve-wracking, but he liked my research.”