An online lecture with Dr Nick Miller
28 May 2026 13:00 BST

Based on Dr Miller’s PhD research, this lecture will explore how the CIA and wider US intelligence community tried to make sense of political succession and elite power in Maoist China and North Korea during the Cold War – and why they so often got it wrong. Drawing on declassified intelligence files, State Department records, memoirs, Chinese sources, and interviews with former officials, it will trace how analysts interpreted two of the most secretive political systems in the world, often through limited information and deeply ingrained assumptions.

The talk will look at major misreadings of China’s Cultural Revolution and elite politics, as well as persistent uncertainty over leadership succession in North Korea, including the rise of Kim Jong-il. Across both cases, it highlights how intelligence assessments were shaped as much by institutional culture and analytical habits as by the information available on the ground. The result is a wider reflection on how secrecy, distance, and preconceptions can shape understanding of complex political systems – and why these Cold War lessons still resonate today.

Nick Miller received his PhD in East Asian Studies from the University of Edinburgh this year. He is currently a Professor of Intelligence Studies at the Citadel Military College of South Carolina and was awarded an Emerging Scholars Fellowship by the International American Studies Association.

Previously he was an East Asian Security Analyst for the United States Department of Defence. Some of his past roles within the US Air Force were Senior Intelligence Analyst, Pacific Command Adversary Training Manager, 64th Aggressor Squadron Certified North Korean Air Defence Briefer, and Liaison Officer to the 613th Air Operation Centre and Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) command.