The International Issues Discussion (IID) series at Toronto Metropolitan University is pleased to present its first talk of the Fall 2026 series in partnership with the Canadian Association for Intelligence and Security Studies (CASIS):  “Not Just For Spies: The Practice of Intelligence in the Private Sector.”

Our guest will be Dr. Maria Robson-Morrow, an intelligence studies researcher and lecturer who runs intelligence studies programming at the Intelligence Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center of Science and International Affairs and teaches graduate-level courses on intelligence at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Robson-Morrow previously worked as a security intelligence analyst in Canada and ran her own consulting firm. Her research has been published in Intelligence and National Security, the Cipher Brief, the Journal of Intelligence History, the Journal of European and American Intelligence Studies, and the Harvard Business Review. She is a Director for the Association of International Risk Intelligence Professionals and a Steering Committee Member of OSAC Canada, and she previously served on the board of the Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Northeastern University in Boston, a Master’s in Military and Strategic Studies from the University of Calgary, and a BA in International Relations, Economics, and History from the University of Toronto. Dr. Robson-Morrow has a book forthcoming on January 4, 2027, with Georgetown University Press, co-authored with Angela Miller Lewis and Lewis Sage-Passant, entitled Private Sector Intelligence: How Corporations Navigate Geopolitical and Security Risks. Her work was recognized in 2025 with the I3 Intelligence Innovation Award.

Her talk will be held in-person on Wednesday, September 30th between 6:30 and 8:30 pm in ENG 103 (the Vari Engineering Building, 245 Church Street, Toronto). Attendance is free and everyone is welcome.  

Founded in 2005, the IID is a non-partisan, student-led forum designed to engage all members of the TMU community on major events and issues in contemporary global affairs through reasoned, objective, and scholarly discourse. For further details about the IID and our series please see iid.kislenko.comor contact the IID student leaders at iidseries@gmail.com    

CASIS fosters informed and non-partisan discussion on critical intelligence and security issues in Canada. It provides an interdisciplinary, diverse, and inclusive forum for anyone interested. More information is available at  CASIS-ACERS