Rory Cormac

Contact

• workRoom C19 Law and Social Sciences Building
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• Rory.Cormac@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Rory Cormac is a Professor of International Relations specialising in the study of Covert Action and Secret Statecraft.

His most recent book is How to Stage A Coup and Ten Other Lessons from the World of Secret Statecraft . The CIA's in-house journal described it as "a valuable and thought-provoking work, the most thorough treatment of the topic to date." International Affairs called it "an important public service".

Alongside Richard J. Aldrich, he has researched and fronted three documentaries for Channel 4: Spying on the Royals (2017), D-Day: The King who Fooled Hitler (2019) and The Queen and the Coup (2020).

He has appeared at the Hay, Cheltenham and Edinburgh Literary Festivals, and regularly features in national and international media outlets, including most UK newspapers, BBC Breakfast, BBC 5Live, BBC Radio 4, BBC History Magazine, and, in America, NBC and National Geographic.

Rory has spoken at the UK Cabinet Office, Home Office, Number 10 and Ministry of Defence, as well as the US State Department and Pentagon.

Rory is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and has held Leverhulme and AHRC fellowships. Before joining Nottingham, Rory worked at the University of Warwick and King's College London.

Expertise Summary

• Covert Action
• Disinformation
• Coups, Sabotage, Assassination, Electoral Interference
• Secret Intelligence

Teaching Summary

Rory currently teaches:

• Secret Intelligence and International Security (BA3)
• Covert Action and Unacknowledged Interventionism (MA)

He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research Summary

Rory is currently researching:

• Covert Action and Unacknowledged Interventions
• Subversion
• Secrecy
• Propaganda and Influence Operations

Recent Publications

• RORY CORMAC, 2026. FAKERS: The Rise and Fall of the UK's Top Secret Forgery Team Oxford University Press. (In Press.)
• RORY CORMAC, GENEVIEVE LESTER, MAGDA LONG, MARK STOUT and DAMIEN VAN PUYVELDE, eds., 2024. Covert Action: Different National Approaches to Practicing Unacknowledged Intervention Georgetown University Press. (In Press.)
• RORY CORMAC and RICHARD J. ALDRICH, 2023. On The Implausibility of Covert Action Denial. In: Intelligence: The Secret World of Spies 6. Oxford University Press.
• RORY CORMAC and DAN LOMAS, 2023. ‘A cuckoo in the diplomatic service nest’: Freedom of information and the ‘English Desk’ of the Information Research Department (IRD) Intelligence and National Security.

• View all publications

PhD Supervision

I am interested in supervising students who want to work in the following areas:

• Intelligence
• Covert operations (propaganda, political influence, sabotage, subversion etc)

Past Research

• Secret Intelligence and the Royal Family
• Secret Intelligence and Prime Ministers

• RORY CORMAC, 2026. FAKERS: The Rise and Fall of the UK's Top Secret Forgery Team Oxford University Press. (In Press.)
• RORY CORMAC, GENEVIEVE LESTER, MAGDA LONG, MARK STOUT and DAMIEN VAN PUYVELDE, eds., 2024. Covert Action: Different National Approaches to Practicing Unacknowledged Intervention Georgetown University Press. (In Press.)
• RORY CORMAC and RICHARD J. ALDRICH, 2023. On The Implausibility of Covert Action Denial. In: Intelligence: The Secret World of Spies 6. Oxford University Press.
• RORY CORMAC and DAN LOMAS, 2023. ‘A cuckoo in the diplomatic service nest’: Freedom of information and the ‘English Desk’ of the Information Research Department (IRD) Intelligence and National Security.
• RORY CORMAC, 2022. The Currency of Covert Action: British Special Political Action in Latin America, 1961-64 Journal of Strategic Studies. 45(6-7), 893-917
• RORY CORMAC, 2022. How to Stage a Coup: and 10 other Lessons from the World of Secret Statecraft Statecraft Atlantic.
• RORY CORMAC, 2022. British "Black" Productions: Forgeries, Front Groups, and Propaganda, 1951-1977 Cold War Studies. 24(3), 4-42
• RORY CORMAC, CALDER WALTON and DAMIEN VAN PUYVELDE, 2021. What Constitutes Successful Covert Action? Evaluating Unacknowledged Interventionism in Foreign Affairs Review of International Studies. 48(1), 111-128
• RICHARD J ALDRICH and RORY CORMAC, 2021. The Secret Royals: Spying and the Crown, from Victoria to Diana Atlantic.
• RICHARD J ALDRICH and RORY CORMAC, 2020. From circumspection to centrality: prime ministers and the growth of analysis, co-ordination, management in the UK intelligence community Journal of Intelligence History.
• THOMAS EASON, OLIVER DADDOW and RORY CORMAC, 2020. From Secrecy to Accountability: The Politics of Exposure in the Belgrano Affair. British Journal of Politics and International Relations. 22(3), 542-560
• 2019. D-Day: The King Who Fooled Hitler Paul Elston. Channel 4. 05/05/2019 00:00:00
• RORY CORMAC, 2019. Techniques of Covert Propaganda:: The British Approach in the mid-1960s Intelligence and National Security.
• RORY CORMAC and OLIVER DADDOW, 2018. Covert Action Failure and Fiasco Construction: William Hague’s 2011 Libyan Venture Journal of European Public Policy. 28(5), 690-707
• RORY CORMAC, 2018. "C" and Covert Action: The Impact and Agency of Stewart Menzies in Britain’s Secret Foreign Policy. In: CHRISTOPHER MORAN, MARK STOUT, IOANNA IORDANOU and PAUL MADDRELL, eds., Spy Chiefs: Volume 1: Intelligence Leaders in the United States and United Kingdom Georgetown University Press.
• RORY CORMAC, 2018. Disrupt and Deny: Spies, Special Forces, and the Secret Pursuit of British Foreign Policy Oxford University Press.
• RORY CORMAC and RICHARD J ALDRICH, 2018. Grey is the New Black: Covert Action and Implausible Deniability International Affairs. 94(3), 477-494
• 2017. Spying on the Royals Paul Elston. Channel 4. 04/23/2017 00:00:00
• 2017. Document: MI6's Secret Slush Fund Phil Tinline. BBC Radio 4. 11/20/2017 00:00:00
• RORY CORMAC, MICHAEL S GOODMAN and TOM HOLMAN, 2016. A Modern-Day Requirement for Co-ordinated Covert Action: Lessons from Britain’s Intelligence History The RUSI Journal. 161(2), 14-21
• RICHARD J ALDRICH and RORY CORMAC, 2016. The Black Door: Spies, Secret Intelligence and British Prime Ministers William Collins.
• RORY CORMAC, 2016. Disruption and Deniable Interventionism: Explaining the Appeal of Covert Action and Special Forces in Contemporary British Policy International Relations. 1-23
• RORY CORMAC, 2016. The Information Research Department, Unattributable Propaganda, and Northern Ireland: Promising Salvation but Ending in Failure? English Historical Review. 131(552), 1074-1104
• RORY CORMAC, 2014. Secret Intelligence and Economic Security: The Exploitation of a Critical Asset in an Increasingly Prominent Sphere Intelligence and National Security. 29(1), 99-121
• RORY CORMAC, 2014. The Pin-Prick Approach: Whitehall’s Top Secret Anti-Communist Committee and the Evolution of British Covert Action Strategy Journal of Cold War Studies. 16(3), 5-28
• RORY CORMAC, 2014. Confronting the Colonies: British Intelligence and Counterinsurgency Oxford University Press (USA) / Hurst.
• RICHARD J ALDRICH, RORY CORMAC and MICHAEL S GOODMAN, 2014. Spying on the World: The Joint Intelligence Committee and Events which Shaped History Edinburgh University Press.
• RORY CORMAC, 2013. Much Ado about Nothing: Terrorism, Intelligence, and the Mechanics of Threat Exaggeration Terrorism and Political Violence. 25(3), 476-493
• HUW BENNETT and RORY CORMAC, 2013. Low Intensity Operations in Theory and Practice: General Sir Frank Kitson as Warrior-Scholar. In: ANDREW MUMFORD and BRUNO REIS, eds., The Theory and Practice of Irregular Warfare: Warrior-scholarship in counter-insurgency Routledge.
• RORY CORMAC, 2012. Coordinating Covert Action: The Case of the Yemen Civil War and the South Arabian Insurgency Journal of Strategic Studies. 36(5), 692-717
• RORY CORMAC, 2011. A Whitehall “Showdown”?: Colonial Office – Joint Intelligence Committee Relations in the mid-1950s Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 39(2), 249-267
• RORY CORMAC, 2010. Organizing Intelligence: An Introduction to the 1955 Report on Colonial Security Intelligence and National Security. 25(6), 800-822
• RORY CORMAC, UK “Black” Productions: Forgeries, Fake Groups, and Propaganda, 1951-1975. Journal of Cold War Studies. (In Press.)