Full Text
Intelligence in War
John Ferris
Subject
International Studies
»
Intelligence Studies
Key-Topics
information, intelligence (information gathering), military strategy, war
DOI: 10.1111/b.9781444336597.2010.x
Extract
Comment on this article This essay assesses writings on the relationship between the many forms of intelligence, and of war. It focuses on academic works, the most advanced part of the field, and on those in the English language, although anyone interested in the intelligence history of most countries must address works in other languages. The literature in French, German and Hebrew has reached a mature level, where it shapes the study of intelligence as an international and interdisciplinary phenomenon, and is fast approaching that state in Dutch, Russian and Spanish as per Kahn (2008) . Despite long roots, this literature on intelligence and war has flowered just recently. For centuries, strategists or military historians discussed intelligence in passing, and used it for evidence or explanation, but a specialist genre dates only from the 1960s, sparked by Roberta Wohlstetter (1962) and David Kahn (1967) , and fueled by the release of records about Ultra, and the era of angst that produced the Watergate scandal. The secret world suddenly seemed central to the real world. It also became accessible to the public. In 1960, intelligence barely ranked as a topic worth academic study; new work was written in a vacuum, almost without benefit of scholarship, while the relevant documents were limited and often hidden. During the next 30 years, in the heroic age of intelligence ... log in or subscribe to read full text
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