Dr. Hoffman maintains Mercyhurst Intelligence community’s long-standing relationship with Romanian intelligence professionals on trip to Romania
In late July, Dr. Fred Hoffman, associate professor of Intelligence Studies and co-chair of the Department of Intelligence Studies, returned from a weeklong trip to Romania. He attended the General Nicolae Condeescu Defense Intelligence Training Center (DITC)’s Annual Intelligence Tradecraft Seminar in Bucharest, where he lectured and engaged with Romanian intelligence professionals. This was Dr. Hoffman’s fourth time attending the seminar since 2019.
Hoffman was joined by Professor Bruce MacKay, an accomplished lawyer, former National Intelligence University professor, and former human intelligence and counterintelligence officer. Hoffman and MacKay, whose working relationship goes back a quarter century, were featured at lectures and question-and-answer sessions with roughly 40 DITC staff, students, and invited guests. Lecture and discussion topics ranged from the evolution of drone warfare and the impact of technology on intelligence collection and analysis to ethical, moral, and legal issues associated with the intelligence field.
Hoffman’s and MacKay’s trip was sponsored by the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Joint Military Intelligence Training Center (JMITC), which is part of DIA’s Academy for Defense Intelligence. JMITC serves as the primary provider of intelligence analysis, collection, planning, and systems training for the DIA and other Military Intelligence Program components and is one of the principal tradecraft training centers for the United States Intelligence Community. Representing JMITC at this event were JMITC Chief DruAnn Hill and Major Derrick “Hammer” Drennan, JMITC’s chief of operations.
On this trip, Hoffman also had the opportunity to reinvigorate Mercyhurst’s relationship with the National Institute for Intelligence Studies of the Mihai Viteazul National Intelligence Academy, which is also located in Bucharest. Comparable to Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, the academy offers graduating Romanian high school seniors the ability to pursue baccalaureate and master’s degrees in intelligence.
During the Cold War, communist Romania was a member of the Warsaw Pact from its inception in 1955 until the collapse of communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Romania joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on March 29, 2004, and for the past 15 years has been home to NATO’s Human Intelligence Center of Excellence, located in Oradea. Romania is a front-line state in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Mercyhurst University not only has a longstanding relationship with Romanian military intelligence, but also with similar organizations in other countries. Dr. Hoffman has also traveled to other partner countries and in 2024 traveled twice to Washington, D.C., to guest lecture at DIA’s Senior Intelligence Leadership Courses, a three-week intermediate-level program for mid-grade international military and civilian intelligence professionals.
PHOTO: A group photo depicting DIA-JMITC officials, former National Intelligence University Professor Bruce MacKay, and Romanian DITC officials.